The Fashion Industry is Going Anti-Trump
Sophie Theallet, previous designer for many of first lady Michelle Obama’s dresses, announces that she refuses to dress our next first lady, Melania Trump. Although Sophie Theallet’s brand is not one that is commonly known, her statement has opened up this idea to public discussion.
She quotes her brand “as one who celebrates and strives for diversity, individual freedom, and respect for all lifestyles”. She will not dress Ivanka due to the racism, sexism and xenophobia that came about during the Trump Campaign. In fact, no designer has really stepped up to design her clothing, or at least been public about it. Honestly, that makes sense. You wouldn’t want to be the one designer that has their name next to Melania Trump’s. I could definitely see the hatred that would come to someone publically known as Melania Trump’s designer. Or I could see it the other way. Any publicity is publicity, even if it’s bad publicity. The designer that will take on that role will take on a lot of trash talk, but secretly love it inside. Who wouldn’t want their 5 minutes of fame?
Designers that have dressed Michelle Obama or even the Kate Middleton, who I see as the British version of the first lady, boast about the opportunity to dress such a noble public figure. Whatever dress Kate or Michelle wears gets sold out immediately on the designer’s website. Especially if they wear a common person’s retailer, such as H&M, the public goes nuts. A Royal and First Lady wear normal clothes that even normal people can afford wow! But that’s a whole other story.
There is a large amount of people refusing to purchase Trump affiliated merchandise. The media movement #grabyourwallet takes that one step further by sharing a list of the major stores that sell Trump merchandise, and provoke people to stop supporting the stores at all. Some big names include, Macy’s, Amazon, and Bloomingdale’s. Shoes.com came out saying that it took out Ivanka Trump footwear from its website.
Ultimately, based on these movements and several designer’s comments, there are three major ways mentioned that have used in the “fashion industry” to continue to emphasize an anti-Trump perspective:
- not allowing Melania to wear specific brands
- refusing to buy Trump products
- boycott any business that sells Trump merchandise.
I am definitely anti-Trump myself, but I find this issue very polarizing. Refusing someone’s right to wear specific clothes is odd. Also, most designers are in the business to sell clothes and make money so I’m sure there are plenty of designers who would design something for Melania just for the money. She never even asked Sophie Theallet, designer protester, for a dress either. How do you ignite a boycott when you have not been really impacted by the cause at all?
The second method makes more sense to me. One reader from the Washington Post comments that “choosing where to put your money “is a peaceful and intelligent way to exercise power” ”. Seeing it from a monetary perspective, there are two major outcomes that can result from a lack of support or a support of a business. With very few people buying your brand, it would eventually entail bankruptcy versus being so successful that you can expand your brand. Who knows how much not buying Trump merchandise will impact his business. Would Trump be emotionally impacted in seeing that one of his businesses is not making as much money as usual?
Lastly, I believe that boycotting a business for selling Trump merchandise is going too far. Amazon has practically become a basic human need. And Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s are much too popular for people to stop purchasing there. The only way I would find myself boycotting an entire store is if the store made a statement that they were specifically Trump supporters. Selling a few Trump goods out of millions of different products is not too serious. His products will be pretty much be invisible anyways against all of the other goods these retailers sell. Like the reader said, you get to choose where you put your money. If you don’t like Trump merch, then don’t buy it. Were people dying to buy his merchandise before his presidency anyways? This announcement actually brings back more attention to our future dictator; I felt that the anti-trump hype had finally died down. Let’s not provoke the Bully any further.
