In the Capitol rotunda, the incoming first lady was nowhere to be seen. Technically, Melania Trump was in attendance, but she chose to make herself almost invisible. Her dark boater hat was worn so low that it threw her entire face into shadow, and made eye contact with cameras or guests impossible.
Matched with severe, high-necked tailoring, it was a startlingly sombre fashion choice on what might have been expected to be a day of joy for the wife of the new president. Melania, who absented herself from the limelight for long stretches of Trump’s first term, seemed to show little more enthusiasm about the second. “Dark Maga” and “mob wife at a funeral” were among the verdicts on social media.
The job description of a first lady, unwritten but widely understood, is to be the human face of an administration. Glamour is expected, but the first lady also stands for relatability, empathy and philanthropy.
Melania has proved herself a disruptor. The savagery of her “I REALLY DON’T CARE. DO U?” jacket, worn on a visit to a child migrant detention centre in 2018, was a message directly aimed, she later said, at the “leftwing media”.
The oddly doom-laden tone of Melania’s outfit at this, her husband’s second swearing-in, was thrown into sharp relief by the contrast with outgoing first lady, Dr Jill Biden, who stuck fast to the traditional Washington playbook, playing safe in a soft blow-dry and peppy purple tailoring.
At the 2017 inauguration, Melania surprised the critics who were waiting with sharpened pens to rip into a look that might have been too gaudy or flashy by choosing, instead, a pastel Ralph Lauren ensemble which paid homage to the timeless elegance of Jackie Kennedy.
On that occasion, the blue-sky colour and soft lines of her outfit were in stark contrast to her husband’s now-infamous “American carnage” speech. This time around, it was Melania who brought an air of menace.
There was a nod to hats worn by a young Princess Diana in Melania’s boater, which was made by New York milliner Eric Javits. Diana wore a similar style, in white with a contrast black band, during a 1983 tour of New Zealand – although by tipping the brim backward and accessorising with a wide smile, she gave it a cheerier tone.
Trump’s fondness for the British royal family is well known, so it is perhaps not surprising if the “people’s princess” has made her way on to Melania’s mood board.
Her navy double-breasted coat with matching pencil skirt and ivory silk blouse was by Adam Lippes, an independent designer and alumna of Ralph Lauren’s design studio, whose clothes have previously been worn by Jill Biden. In a statement, Lippes spoke of the honour of designer for an occasion which “embodies the beauty of American democracy,” adding that the outfit was hand-stitched in New York “by some of America’s finest craftsmen.”
If Melania seemed less than keen to pick up the traditional first lady fashion baton, Ivanka Trump was on hand. Adept at the political calculus of wardrobe choices, Ivanka, the incoming president’s eldest daughter, was note-perfect in a forest green skirt suit, Nancy Reagan-adjacent in its classic silhouette and neatly draped neckline.
It was a look which seemed to confirm Ivanka’s intention to return to the Trump frontline. Her black Dior handbag matched her towering heels. Delphine Arnault, CEO of Dior and daughter of one of the world’s richest men, happened to be standing a few feet away.
The headline-making vibe shift of the incoming administration has been around the US getting back in touch with what Mark Zuckerberg has termed its “masculine energy”.
At the inauguration, this re-entrenchment of traditional gender roles was not played out, as some had predicted it would be, in a showy display of femininity among high-profile women around Trump. Standing next to her husband, inscrutable and monochrome, Melania was giving close protection officer, not trophy wife vibes.
Both she and Ivanka pinned their tumbling mermaid waves neatly out of sight. It was left to the wife of the incoming vice-president, Usha Vance, all smiles in bubblegum pink and prominent floral earrings, to channel the straight-up femininity of a populist princess.
Trump’s most visible current plus one – Elon Musk – was more than happy to grin for the cameras, from a prime position next to Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son. Musk swapped his trademark flight jacket for a starched white shirt and classic black suit.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, too, was suited and booted, and had left his new gold necklace at home. The dandy flourish of a pocket square, modelled by Joe Biden, was absent from the suits of the Trump gang, who prefer a blunter masculine aesthetic, with broad shouldered suits and chunky ties.
With his signature bronzer, Trump seems to be aiming for a weathered ruggedness, perhaps. He is playing the macho cowboy who just rode into town. As to what Melania makes of it, we are still none the wiser.
Read more of the Guardian’s Trump coverage
