Melania’s hat, winter shorts and other cute looks

The inauguration day is completely filled with pomp, pageantry and photographs.

The clothes worn on this world stage – the colors, the cuts and the details – make headlines. From Melania’s eye-catching hat to Usha’s fashion forward overcoat, here’s a quick recap of some of the most memorable looks of the day.

Melania Trump kicked off Inauguration Day with an outfit that has all the hallmarks of her favorite first lady style: sharp cuts, pointed heels and a dramatic flair through the headgear. It’s simultaneously serious and chic.

It also shows his love of hats, which sometimes gets him into trouble – for example was widely criticized Colonial-style pith helmet on safari in Kenya.

Hats have long been a staple of First Ladies’ inaugural attire, from Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat to the hats worn by Nancy Reagan to each of her husband’s inaugurations, the first being “Reagan red” and the second being blue.

But while some hats seem like an extra thing to an outfit, others have more energy of the main character – as is the case with Melania Trump today.

The brim is wide enough and the contrast between the cream ribbon and the navy hat is large enough that it draws the eye upward – even if it obscures the wearer’s eyes, making a person difficult to read.

What designer the First Lady wears to the inauguration is a subject of fascination – and an opportunity to spread a message. It was a notable change of gear as Melania chose a coordinating hat from New York designers Adam Lippes and Eric Javits.

She may have worn a dress by American fashion designer Ralph Lauren to her husband’s last inauguration, but she often turns to big European houses. Unlike Lauren, neither Lipps nor Javits are such household, starry names. Well, Lipps recently opened a new boutique in Palm Beach, where Trump has his Mar-a-Lago, or his “Southern White House.”

The price tag on the brand is very high: Melania is known for her extravagant taste – many of her dresses cost thousands, while previously First Lady dresses were in the thousands – and Lips’ dresses, for example, cost $1,200 (£1,000). Starts from. Up to more than $9,000 (£7,500).

As with most of Melania’s aesthetics, her look today will likely be a collaboration with her stylist Hervé Pierre, a French fashion and costume designer who has worked at Balmain, Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang and is a former creative director of . In Carolina Herrera.

His extensive experience of working in theater would mean that he well understood the idea of ​​how a costume should sing on stage – although no theater would be as exposed, watched or criticized as On the World Stage today. It is going on.

Former First Lady Jill Biden once again wore purple blue from head to toe.

The blue color is a very on-brand color for the entire Biden family and represents the last four years of the administration.

At her husband’s swearing-in ceremony in 2021, Jill wore a blue coat by designer/founder Alexandra O’Neill for New York-based luxury womenswear label Markarian. It reportedly quadrupled the designer’s sales. It was custom made and embroidered with Swarovski crystals, plus it featured a matching pandemic-era face mask.

Both Bidens chose today to wear clothes from all-American designer Ralph Lauren, whose clothes and backstory are often seen as synonymous with the American dream.

It’s no surprise: Jill has worn his clothes for the past four years and was in his fashion show in the Hamptons last September.

Her husband recently awarded Lauren the country’s highest civilian honor – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – and in the process became the first fashion designer to receive that distinction.

Ralph Lauren suits have been the outgoing president’s appropriate uniform of choice. As he leaves office, the White House website summarizes his presidency: “One country for all Americans, one future for all Americans.”

You could argue that his Ralph Lauren suits are also designed to leave no Americana behind – never straying too far from classic blue and classic lines.

First daughter Ivanka Trump wore a matching hat with an emerald green skirt suit, matching Melania’s serious color palette.

The hourglass silhouette—the cinched waist and fuller skirt—felt edgy and intentional. It was reminiscent of Dior’s glamorous New Look, which ushered in a new era in fashion after World War II.

The asymmetry of the cut, however, seemed to be a note of continuity: Ivanka wore a white Oscar de la Renta jacket with an asymmetric handkerchief hem for Inauguration Day in 2017.

The first daughter’s outfit looks like it might be reminiscent of the work of Cuban-born American fashion designer Adolfo Sardina, who started out as an apprentice milliner at Bergdorf Goodman in the late 1940s and became known for his fabulous hats. Went. Which Nancy Reagan wore to both of her husband’s inaugurations.

Usha Vance, attorney and wife of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, had her most high-profile appearance to date, speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. For the occasion she chose a cobalt blue off-the-shoulder Badgley Mischka dress, which costs $495 (£400). According to a spokesperson who spoke to industry website WWD, Vance may have purchased the garment herself as the brand was not consulted.

But there were clear signs of a tilt toward more high-fashion choices in Washington this weekend, when the incoming Second Lady wore a custom black velvet gown and a smart white double-breasted coat by Oscar de la Renta for the Vice President’s Dinner. Was wearing. Wreath laying ceremony at Arlington Cemetery earlier in the day.

Today, she chose an overcoat with a wonderfully fashion-forward detail: a scarf intentionally tied into its waist-height belt. Is this a sign of a more stylish image to come as Vance takes her place as the second woman?

Suit, tie, shoulder pads, pearls; These are the traditional attire for Inauguration Day. But John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s U.S. senator from 2023, has never been one to stick to a traditional dress code — he wore a Carhartt hoodie with a bow-tie pattern to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last year.

Still, if tradition didn’t mean Fetterman selected a pair of trousers, you might have thought the weather might — temperatures were so low in Washington today that the ceremony was moved inside for the first time since 1985. Has gone. Yet Fetterman was seen without a coat. , wearing only a hoodie, and shorts.

It’s fitting — Fetterman is all about flouting tradition — after all, he was the first Senate Democrat to meet with Trump after the election.

At Bill Clinton’s 1997 inauguration, Hillary Clinton wore a candy floss-pink dress by Oscar de la Renta. And to her husband’s first swearing-in ceremony in 1993 she went for an unusually busy look for a first lady on Inauguration Day, when block colors are the order of the day: a check suit and a blue velor by Arkansas designer Connie Fales. Hat by Darcy Creech.

At Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 she wore an all-white and cream Ralph Lauren pantsuit — the outfit that apparently makes her feel the most battle-ready and professional.

Today, unlike her previous palette, she has gone for a serious navy. There is only one brooch on her coat.

The details are unclear but brooches often quote the garment’s message and Clinton knows it. She recently wore a bald eagle brooch – a national symbol – with an American flag to Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

Trump’s close advisor, Tesla CEO and

Recently in Musk’s case, a Belstaff jacket captured the Internet’s attention, while Mark Zuckerberg’s style makeover took him from “normcore” gray T-shirts and inconspicuous jeans to luxury labels, slogan T-shirts emblazoned with Greek and Latin. Have seen changes in your brand. Phrases and Million Pound Watches.

Today, Musk is wearing a suit that looks ordinary except for one detail: a slightly odd tie.

In a move that could easily have been taken out of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s sartorial playbook, Musk has signaled disappointment on a solemn and formal day.