The Hidden Meaning in Melania Trump’s Convention Dress

On Monday night, the world was formally introduced to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s wife, Melania. The Slovenian-born former model has rarely appeared on the campaign trail since her husband announced his candidacy last summer. While she often appears beside him at press conferences and media events, she has notably kept quiet, not making stump speeches of her own.

And so the stakes were particularly high when she addressed a huge segment of the American electorate in one fell swoop.

There were a few surprises.

First, Melania opted not to wear an American designer. Her dramatically sleeved dress was created by U.K.-based designer Roksanda Ilincic, a Serbian native, and was originally marketed as a wedding dress “for the modern bride.” And while a hot pink version of the dress is still available for sale online, the white version, retailing for $2,190 and reportedly purchased by Melania herself, quickly sold out.

The reactions were definitely positive, with the Internet’s fashion critics seeming to applaud her selection, with some pointing out the obvious suggestion of absolute purity being pushed in dressing a candidate’s wife in all white.

Having a potential first lady — especially one who has hardly spoken in any public capacity — present herself to the American public as a virginal bride is an interesting move. But not if we dig a little deeper.

Firstly, Melania is originally from Slovenia, which, while she was growing up, was part of Yugoslavia. The dress designer, Roksanda Ilincic, is a Serbian native, which was also part of the former Yugoslavia. In her dress choice, Melania makes a direct nod to her homeland and supports a “local” designer who, like herself, left for her career — Ms. Trump’s in modeling, and Ms. Ilinicic’s in fashion.

But, secondly, the choice to not wear an American designer seems to reinforce another message frequently repeated by the Trump campaign: that Melania is the “right” kind of immigrant. In a February interview with Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, Melania explained that she “followed the law,” working in the U.S. on a work visa before applying for a green card and then, ultimately, citizenship.

Melania’s story is one being carefully presented as the polar opposite to the kind of immigrants her husband has regularly disparaged on the campaign trail.

But then something else happened following the conclusion of the first night of the Republican National Convention: California-based journalist Jarrett Hill uncovered, and unleashed on Twitter, that Melania’s speech contained whole paragraphs that seemed to match the speech that Michelle Obama gave at her husband’s nominating convention in 2008.

With this, headlines of the meaning of the candidate’s wife wearing an Eastern-European designer, arriving at the convention with an Hermès Birkin bag (French designed and manufactured and with a price tag higher than the total many Americans will earn in a year), and dressed as a bride were squashed.

But Donald Trump has called his wife a new Jackie Kennedy. Wearing a Serbian designed wedding dress to address the American people presents a subtle, yet striking, image of innocence, and a nod to her homeland. It’ll be interesting to see what Mrs. Trump’s next fashion choice will be.

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