Trivial fashion interlude: on the other hand…
…the makers of Melania’s dress must be very very happy. It sold out immediately, and at over $2,000 a pop that’s not chump change (although it may be Trump change).
I wish all the Melania-dress-buyers well, though, in wearing it the way she did. I noticed the dress immediately; it’s unusual and to me somewhat reminiscent of perhaps the early-to-mid 60s. But it would be very unflattering for most people. My first thought on seeing it was that I could never pull it off—it would make me (and most women) look like a flour sack tied in the center with a bow (I couldn’t quite tell if it was a bow, but something like that).
No, I don’t really look like a flour sack. But my point is that you have to be tall and very long-waisted (I’m not) to wear that thing, because the high neck (as opposed to the more flattering V) and the belt and the sheath skirt all conspire to make for the lumpy/bumpy divided-in-half look—although not on Melania, who after all was a model:
The puff at the end of the sleeves is also an idiosyncratic touch that’s hard to pull off unless you have marvelous runway panache. Mrs. Trump has it, so it works for her. And white is famously un-slenderizing, so there’s that, too.
There’s also an interesting backstory about the dress:
Melania is originally from Slovenia, which, while she was growing up, was part of Yugoslavia. The dress designer, Roksanda Ilincic, is a Serbian native, which was also part of the former Yugoslavia. In her dress choice, Melania makes a direct nod to her homeland and supports a “local” designer who, like herself, left for her career ”” Ms. Trump’s in modeling, and Ms. Ilinicic’s in fashion.
But, secondly, the choice to not wear an American designer seems to reinforce another message frequently repeated by the Trump campaign: that Melania is the “right” kind of immigrant. In a February interview with Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, Melania explained that she “followed the law,” working in the U.S. on a work visa before applying for a green card and then, ultimately, citizenship.
Melania’s story is one being carefully presented as the polar opposite to the kind of immigrants her husband has regularly disparaged on the campaign trail.
Who knew a dress could say so much? So maybe fashion isn’t always trivial, after all.
Puffy sleeves never work for me. Especially if Im welding or pipe fitting. I do find the color is slenderizing though.
Similar problem with the Empire waistline. (For you folks who don’t know historic styles, that’s where the waistline comes right up under the bust. Think Regency period.) The slightest amount of belly fat will make the wearer look pregnant.
Brian Swisher:
Also, women with well-endowed chests cannot wear empire dresses well, even if they don’t have much belly fat. That’s because the dress fans out from the body because of the chest, making the wearer look fatter than she is.
Fashion is so hard.
My daughter is a fashion designer. When she was in college and at that point of my life I had more money to spend on clothes, I always brought her with me. They see things differently. For the first couple years, I felt like I couldn’t make a decision without her. Once I was “schooled” in what was right for me, it was easy. If I have an important occasion (my son’s upcoming wedding) I still look to her. I tried on 7 dresses and she had input on every one…things I didn’t see. And there really was a “right” one in the 7. I see so many attractive woman all around me that regularly wear the wrong thing for them. I always think, “they can use my daughter’s assistance.”
I don’t want to try and exceed myself and my intelligence, education, training, and experience.
But if she wasn’t hot she’d never get away with this.
Quoting a verse from the book of Captain Obvious.
Unless she was a Democrat. Ugly chicks can get away with almost anything as long as they have a “D” after their name.
And by ugly I do not mean merely the physically unattractive.
I almost wish I hadn’t brought it up. In my limited experience women are far more worried about their looks than men are. If you can love a man back, there is a man for you.
What do you want to bet that Melania and the daughters will be fanning out to the daytime women’s this fall and be making regular appearances. Maybe even bringing a few of their fashion model friends along. Suddenly The Donald won’t be so scary after all and they can feel good about themselves if they switch their votes from D to R, if only just this time. Oh, and The National Enquirer in the supermarket line is already pounding Crooked Hilary.
“Fashion is so hard.”
Isn’t it, though! (Just returned an empire-waist dress that I otherwise loved to the catalogue house because it fanned out from below the bust to make me look pregnant, which I have not been in lo these many years. But I liked that dress. Doggone it.)
Paul in Boston,
Well, The Donald’s family is one of the best things he has going for him. Melania and Ivanka come across as genuine and likeable. He is smart to have them out in front..they make him seem much more tolerable than he actually is.
Although the MSM and the Twitterverse are doing their best to turn Melania into a laughingstock (after the plagiarized cliches from MO, and the Rickrolling, etc.) I don’t think it’s going to stick. Her natural charm and grace will carry the day.
And since we are talking fashion, I enjoyed the show What Not To Wear…hosts Stacy and Clinton were geniuses at matching the right clothes to a particular individual. It’s a gift that many, perhaps most, people do not have.
Look at her hands. Model bone structure includes, necessarily, very long hands and feet.
Hardly ever fails.