Hervé Pierre, Melania Trump’s stylist, has spoken out about clothing the former first lady for her husband’s second inauguration after several big-name designers refused to help.
There is much speculation about what Melania Trump will wear for the inauguration and throughout her husband’s second term as president. Despite the prestige of dressing the First Lady of the United States, Melania has not been a popular choice for designers.
Women’s Wear Daily contacted 16 designers to see whether they would dress the former Slovenian model and assess her possible impact on fashion, but none responded. Representatives for Michael Kors, Prabal Gurung, Diotima’s Rachel Scott, Zankov’s Henry Zankov, Sergio Hudson, House of Gilles’ Gilles Mendel and his daughter Chloe, Tanner Fletcher’s Tanner Richie, and Fletcher Kassel declined to comment or were unavailable.
During Donald Trump’s first election, numerous high-profile designers, including Marc Jacobs, Jason Wu, Zac Posen, and Tom Ford, publicly refused to dress Melania. It appears that little has changed this time around.
Melania wore mostly European designers like Dior when she first became FLOTUS, and she still does it today.
Hervé Pierre, a French designer, is among several who have worked closely with Melania throughout the years. Speaking with Women’s Wear Daily, he noted that he has yet to receive a satisfactory explanation for why certain people refuse to work with the First Lady.
Pierre told WWD that he buys Melania’s couture dresses from freestanding boutiques, something he still does now.
He thinks that 95% of her clothing is purchased this way, rather than from designer showrooms or special designs, as previous first ladies have done.
“I don’t really do that for the good reason that the fashion industry is not very welcoming [of Trump.] That’s no secret,” he explained. “Some are very open-minded and would be able to do something special. But a lot of people are not.”
The French designer described one instance in which his work with the Trumps had a bad impact on his life. When he was shopping in a designer boutique in New York City, one employee told him he “was not welcome here.”
“I understand that you can criticize Mrs. Trump, but to say to someone who is coming to shop – full-price, ‘You are not welcome here.’ That is something that I would have never expected,” Pierre said.
“Some of the designers here in New York are lovely. The Europeans are more open-minded. They see dressing Mrs. Trump, due to the press coverage that she is getting, as a business opportunity to generate sales and free publicity,”
