Why do you wear what you wear? For me it's because it's comfortable and I think it looks good. Everything I wear is a statement, whether intended or not. Usually that message is I'm comfortable and I think I look good. Sometimes what I wear has a deliberate statement to make, like my #blacklivesmatter shirt. My audience is small, but I am aware of what my clothes say.
If you are in the public eye, what you wear is part of your message simply because you are wearing it. To think or act otherwise is a denial of reality.
First ladies have a long history of fashion influence. When they hosted parties, lucky guests and DC society reporters would write about the first lady's gown and accessories with admiration or dismay. Julia Tyler was too flashy, Abigail Adams and Sarah Polk were too plain, Elizabeth Monroe looked very European (perhaps too much), Anna Harrison looked old. Jane Pierce wore nothing but mourning, boring black, Mary Lincoln was a greedy, gaudy mess. Frances Cleveland was elegant and sublime. Eleanor Roosevelt wore what she wanted and didn't care (obviously), Mamie Eisenhower wore pink.
Jackie Kennedy is deserving of an essay all to herself. When Jackie was First Lady, politics and haute couture combined to present a new image of the President's wife to the country and the world. Jackie was so popular in France wearing her designer gowns (while speaking perfect French, naturellement) President Kennedy joked that he was the man who came with Jackie Kennedy. She ushered American fashion away from Mamie Eisenhower's pink lace and the fussy fifties into Christian Dior, Oleg Cassini, and the sleek sixties.
Jackie Kennedy made the most famous fashion statement in First Lady history when she refused to change out of her pink suit stained with her assassinated husband's blood. "Let them see what they have done to Jack," she told Lady Bird Johnson. For President Kennedy's funeral, his widow wore a black mourning dress and iconic veil, presenting an unforgettable statement of grief, both hers and the nation's.
Nancy Reagan is a flip side to this coin: Jackie wore designer clothes and was stylish. Nancy wore designer clothes and was extravagant. First Ladies must learn to tailor their wardrobe (ha, a pun!) to the country's economy: too bland and they're not inspiring; too flashy and they're insensitive.
Subsequent First Ladies have learned that their wardrobe is expected to be as stylish and innovative as Jackie Kennedy's, as ladylike and uncontroversial as Lady Bird Johnson, as inexpensive as possible (I'm guessing Rosalynn Carter is a role model here), but grand enough to impress our allies and enemies alike with our prosperity. Above all, her clothes must not make a political statement (other than wearing a gown by a Chinese designer to a Chinese State Visit reception, for example).
Melania Trump is a former model. Models are supposed to know how to project an images, to make statements. It is difficult, if not impossible, to believe that the choice of that jacket was accidental or that it was not intended to make a statement. Her stylist(s) should resign and seek another profession, because clearly this one is too complicated. Melania should go through her wardrobe and eliminate any potentially controversial pieces. Ma'am, it won't be difficult; just ask yourself one question: should I wear this? If the piece has words on it (always bad) or is an everyday clothing item that costs more than a month's rent ($1,200 country-wide average), toss it in the pile.
Once you have that donation pile, I know of a bunch of kids who might need some donated clothing to keep warm.
