Melania Trump started her second term as America’s first lady with a clear message: She is doing things her way.
The former model was covered up in a high-buttoned navy blue coat by designer Adam Lippes at her husband Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, paired with a matching boater hat that shielded her eyes from public view.
Many American designers have reportedly refused to dress her in the past but, as fashion journalist and historian Nancy MacDonell told Page Six, “She doesn’t care. She’s unreadable, inscrutable — and she likes it that way.
“The look said ‘I’m flawless and in control,’ and it showed that she’s going to do things her way this time — she won’t look back.”
Melania walked tall into the Capitol Rotunda Monday for her husband’s swearing-in, more prepared than ever for life in the White House.
During the 2017 transition, outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama appeared to grimace as she accepted a photo frame from Tiffany from Melania — who later admitted she found the Obamas to be less than welcoming.
“The first time was challenging; we didn’t have much information,” she told FOX & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt earlier this month. “The information was [withheld] from us by the previous administration. But this time I have everything. It’s a very different transition this time, second time around.”
But Melania still plans to be herself.
“I just feel that people didn’t accept me maybe … And I didn’t have much support,” she said of the first term. “Maybe some people, they see me as just a wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree what my husband is saying or doing. And that’s OK.”
As Page Six has previously detailed, she will split her time between DC, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., and Trump Tower in NYC, where her son, Barron, is a freshman at NYU.
“Melania Trump has taken the reins for exactly how she’ll be first lady — on her terms and on her terms alone. She is going to run a tight ship,” a Trump family source told us.
She has made it clear that she’ll set her own schedule and that everything the president’s team wants her to do has to be cleared by her first.
“It’s her schedule and no one else’s,” said the Trump family source, “She’s done this job before and already knows what she’s willing to do and not do.”
The first lady has hired a small personal team to run her office, in the East Wing of the White House, overseen by longtime aide Hayley Harrison, who she has praised for “exceptional leadership.”
Discretion is highly important to her after her former chief of staff Stephanie Winston Wolkoff wrote a tell-all, “Melania and Me,” in 2020, claiming the Trumps had a “transactional marriage” and that the first lady did not get on well with Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka.
Last time around, Melania did not move into the White House until five months into her husband’s term, as Barron was then just 10 years old and she wanted him to finish the school year. But he’s now 18 and studying at the NYU Stern School of Business, and Melania has said she will be in DC from day one.
Her role as first lady will see her meeting world leaders and royalty. As Page Six has already revealed, the British Foreign Office would love Prince William and Kate Middleton to travel to the US next year for the World Cup and to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Historian MacDonell, whose new book ‘Empresses of Seventh Avenue’ is out now, described Melania’s “controlled image” as rather royal.
“She wears far more European designers than previous first ladies,” MacDonell said, adding that Melania will “double down” on not following convention in the new installment of the Trump presidency.
“You could absolutely see her waving on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Being royal and being fashionable are two very different things,” she said. “It’s more formal than American fashion, and it’s her public armor.”
Indeed, Monday’s hat, by Eric Javits, was so wide that Donald Trump could barely reach her as he leaned in for an air kiss before taking his Oath of Office.
While Melania, 54, chose a powder blue dress by Ralph Lauren — considered by many to be an homage to Jackie Kennedy — for President Trump’s 2017 inauguration, this time around, MacDonell said, she stayed in her “comfort zone”.
The almost severe look, which the author described as “governess-y,” was a chic and sharp break from the usual light and bright or patterned affairs chosen by first ladies for inaugurations.
Despite being a former model, Melania also does not seem to care that she has not been featured on the cover of Vogue as other first ladies have been – apart from showing off her before her marriage to Tump.
“I don’t think she would do anything to win over Anna Wintour,” said MacDonell.
During the last Trump presidency, designers including Marc Jacobs and Zac Posen said they would not dress Melania, and her trusted stylist Hervé Pierre told Women’s Wear Daily he was once told he was “not welcome” in a swanky Madison Avenue store.
“I understand that you can criticize Mrs.Trump. But to say to someone who is coming to shop – full-price – ‘You are not welcome here.’ That is something that I would have never expected,” Pierre said.
He revealed that he buys about 95% of Melania’s designer outfits retail — versus being loaned dresses — and added that that the fashion industry is not very welcoming.
“That’s no secret. Some are very open-minded and would be able to do something special. But a lot of people are not,” he said.
Lippes, who dressed Melania Monday in a tailored navy silk wool coat and pencil skirt, plus an ivory silk crepe blouse, all hand-sewn in NYC, told Page Six, “The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy … Mrs. Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”
Melania is already filming a $40 million Amazon documentary — no surprise, then, that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez were prominent guests at the inauguration — which will include a look at this latest move into the White House. She has also shot scenes at Mar-a-Lago and in Trump Tower, we’re told, and the project will feature cameos from Trump and Barron.
The documentary, directed by Hollywood’s Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”), is set to be released later this year — with one source close to the film suggesting it could spawn multiple projects that will take viewers behind the scenes of the White House.
Melania has also made clear she’ll refocus on her “Be Best” campaign for children both in the US and around the world. Two days before the inauguration Melania met Queen Rania of Jordan for tea in Florida.
The gathering focused on issues close to both their hearts: children’s welfare and the importance of improving access to quality education.
“She wants to display her business savvy and acumen and she wants to make money for the work she does and the products she’s planning to sell,” the source close to the documentary said of Melania.
“She realizes this is the last chance she’ll have to be on a global platform as first lady and wants to make the most of it.”
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