This time round, Melania’s buttoned-up coat gave her the looks of a classy, old-timey spy. She appeared reserved and austere, whereas nonetheless retaining the polish for which outlined her first 4 years as FLOTUS. Like a spy, she additionally gave the impression to be carrying her outer layers like safety, a bodily barrier between herself and the world.
Seated behind the rostrum the place Donald Trump took the oath of workplace to grow to be the forty seventh president of the United States, Melania saved each her coat and hat on for the whole thing of the ceremony. Her brim, tilted low, forged a thick shadow over her eyes, shielding her from the view of tens of millions of Americans who had been mendacity in anticipate some sort of response. (This time round, they acquired that reaction from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who appeared to involuntarily chuckle on the president’s declaration that the Gulf of Mexico would now be often known as the Gulf of America.)
Amid the ocean of darkish fits, Melania was troublesome to pluck out of the group, not like, say, Second Lady Usha Vance, who wearing a pastel pink wool coat, her hair tucked in a chignon to point out her face. Was this little bit of camouflage an unintended consequence of her chosen outfit, or an intentional try to mix in with the group, and go (comparatively) unnoticed? If we all know Melania Trump, she’ll by no means say.
