On Monday, all the analyzes surrounding the wardrobe chosen by Melania Trump at the inauguration ceremony lost value or at least completely changed their meaning at the exact moment in which a press release arrived in the electronic mailboxes of all the fashion journalists from Paris in which one of the main brands of the most important luxury conglomerate in the world, LVMH, announced that the Republican first lady had chosen her black cape for the visit to Arlington National Cemetery. And he did it at exactly the same time that the world could see live and direct that among the faces of businessmen invited by the new president to the investiture ceremony were all the members of the , the owners of the .
It was not the first time that the firm sent a press release about Melania Trump’s wardrobe, but it was the first in an institutional event with global repercussions. The wife of the 47th president of the United States was not dressed in the French brand at the ceremony for which her husband was inaugurated, but in a relatively unknown American brand, called Adam Lippes; But this was not particularly new: in the previous inauguration, Melania also opted for a national brand, Ralph Lauren. It was surprising and newsworthy that the representatives of a flagship of French culture, design and high craftsmanship, and therefore ambassadors of some form of the European spirit, came to expressly applaud Trump.
In the previous term, if Melania decided to wear European luxury clothing, from Saint Laurent to Bottega Veneta (which was common), she did so on a private basis and acquired the clothing as another citizen. It was the way that one of the main representatives of and staunch defender of LGTBIQ+ rights had, of tacitly saying that the wife of the tycoon turned politician and president could buy with her money the merchandise of the world of fashion but not the values associated with she.
The hat, a boater-type piece made by the independent brand Eric Javits, drew attention because it covered Melania Trump’s eyes, an undoubtedly somber gesture. The last time one wore a hat to a ceremony was Hillary Clinton in 1993, but it is the first time that a president’s wife tries to hide her face during an event in which it will be scrutinized worldwide. As her main piece, Mrs. Trump opted for a navy blue double-breasted coat custom-made by Adam Lippes, who also designed the white ballgown with black bows she wore to the inaugural ball. Various analysts agreed that the outfit chosen for the main event was reminiscent of the one chosen on the official visit to the United Kingdom with Elizabeth II still on the throne. The similarity is obvious, as is the fact that the colors are inverted: where there were light tones before, there are now dark ones. The publicized Dior cape that he had worn the day before at Arlington Cemetery, combined with black leather boots, gave him a very unfriendly military appearance.
But beyond the creative analysis of the gesture through semiotic theories, the indisputable fact is that the president’s wife has used her powerful image to support two independent American firms run by white, blonde men (with clients in two key areas: Javits in Miami and Lipps in New York) while her husband once again insisted on a particularly hostile speech on the creation of tariffs, the country’s commercial isolation and the idea of returning to America all its supposed industrial splendor without foreign dependence.
And meanwhile, along with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai, Bernard Arnault, who had traveled from Paris with his wife Hélène and two of his children, and Alexandre, agreed on benches in which the absence of Emmanuel Macron. He thus established himself as the unofficial representative of France, sharing the plane with leaders such as Milei and Meloni.
The first time that Arnault was seen publicly with Trump was in 2019, the year in which the LVMH conglomerate opened its first Louis Vuitton factory, its best-selling brand, in the United States, to which, to continue with the story of luxury , called “workshop”. Located near the small town of Alvarado, in Johnson County, this workshop has an area of more than 9,200 square meters and is called “Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch.” The name was chosen by the multinational in honor of French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Count of Rochambeau, who led the French troops during the American War of Independence. This fact was one of those highlighted by the president of the United States when he personally attended the inauguration. On that occasion he highlighted the role of France as “our oldest ally” and “also the most loyal and valuable.”
The creation of new facilities was justified at the time as a strategy to satisfy the growing demand of American customers, who account for 25% of total sales for Vuitton. However, at the beginning of 2020 it could be seen that the French businessman was foreseeing Trump’s tariff strategy: up to one hundred percent on French luxury products, including handbags.
The founder and CEO of LVMH is the fourth richest person in the world and has made multiple investments through his family office (Aglaé Ventures) in artificial intelligence (AI) companies based in the United States and Canada, including a startup California-based company focused on enterprise applications called Lamini; one of marketing New York-based AI-powered digital platform called Proxima, and a Toronto-based human resources management platform called Borderless. The data is relevant considering that its great competitor in the field of luxury, François-Henri Pinault, owner of , the second largest conglomerate of companies, is also in the field of entertainment: last year he bought the representation agency of CAA actors, one of the most powerful in the United States, and currently aspires to dominate the red carpet business. Neither he nor his wife, Salma Hayek, were at the investiture ceremony. For now, Melania will have to continue paying for Gucci, Bottega or Schiaparelli (all Pinault brands) out of her own pocket and without advertising support. In fact, another of the capes that Melania Trump wore these days, specifically the one she wore on the night of the candlelight dinner, was from Saint Laurent, belonging to Kering. The second giant did not send a press release about it.
