Posted on 12/18/2017 4:40:46 AM PST by simpson96
If there has been a single defining characteristic of Melania Trump’s public profile over the past year, it has been her relationship with sleeves. They have served as a dramatic flourish. They have been rolled up in empathy. They have been self-consciously ignored. They have reflected her personal fashion sense, the artifice inherent in the ill-defined role of first lady and the privilege of life in the White House.
Her sleeves are always in service to the picture. And there is always a picture.
The mere fact that sleeves are even considered part of her fashion profile has a lot to do with her predecessor, who more often than not shunned them. Michelle Obama made sleeveless dresses a style signature, even posing for her first official White House portrait wearing a sleeveless black Michael Kors dress. Obama’s bare arms were in keeping with contemporary fashion, but their particularly lean musculature also served as a silent disquisition on the subject of physical fitness, one of her early East Wing initiatives. In contrast, the new first lady chose a long-sleeve black Dolce & Gabbana jacket for her first portrait. Trump’s fondness for sleeves is not a pragmatic matter of covering her arms. Indeed, just because a garment has sleeves is no guarantee that those sleeves will actually be used. When she wears an overcoat or sweater, often the sleeves hang, inert, like a pair of limp, vestigial wings draped across her shoulders.
Trump’s sleeves are the mark of a fashion aesthete who is willing to cast aside practicality in favor of line, silhouette and proportion. Her sleeves tell a story of an exceptional life, one that is now lived inside the White House security bubble. Just as Obama knew she’d never have to wait for the car in the cold,
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“”it seemed that all the TV news and weather women went sleeveless, even in the snowy north””
Agree - came in after your post to voice the same opinion.
Re: made-in-America - Inauguration Day outfit by Ralph Lauren (I don't know if the clothes are made in America, but Ralph Lauren is definitely all American)
Re: nor a nod to host country's creative industry - like when she wore a Christian Dior suit in France or Dolce & Gabbana in Italy or a local designer's outfit in Belgium.
Either Robin Givhan is ignorant or she is lying through her teeth.
Let's go with "lying through her teeth" for $400, ELS.
I don’t hate her, she just always looked freaky to me, like an alcohol syndrome baby with wide set eyes. Her father was a gambling alcoholic, maybe mom was too. I just think she looked weird, when most people say she was a great beauty.
Works for me. :-)
Did not read the article, but very much enjoyed the pictures posted in the FR thread. Had not see a couple of those outfits before.
M. A. Beautiful A.
YES! Our First Lady has more than beauty, she has an artistry and elegance to her that cannot be faked.
Oh, and another thing—Melania became a citizen, I believe; she would never say something like Michelle, who said something to the effect, “all this for a d**n flag?”
That is because Our First Lady knows what it is like to live without Liberty.
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wants to have this country burn as long as they get to be kings of the ashes.
“”Her father was a gambling alcoholic, maybe mom was too””
Don’t know how anyone could reply to such a ridiculous statement.
The article implies that sleeveless was already the style. I would like to see pictures of MSM news readers in the winter wearing sleeveless dresses before M OB came on the scene. It always looked ridiculous to me.
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