On Friday, designer Tom Ford said in a television interview that Melania Trump would never wear his clothes. Ford, who was responsible for making Gucci great again last decade, and heading up YSL, said he was asked to dress her quite a few years ago but declined: "She's not necessarily my image."
It's a dignified way of saying that Ford, who frequently dresses A-list actresses and actors for the Oscars and the Met Gala, doesn't think Mrs Trump has the class to pull off his glamorous outfits. Ford joins other designers, including Marc Jacobs and Sophie Theallet who have publicly refused to dress the First Lady-elect. Designers aren't the only ones to register their dissent.
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Last week, fashion news website Fashionista announced that they would be scaling back reportage of Melania Trump. This stance is similar to the one US InStyle's editor Laura Brown has taken, stating that she has no plans to cover Mrs Trump at all.
Fashionista admits it is a "thorny issue" and they make their point wonderfully well. A racist xenophobe who has openly admitted to sexually assaulting women has just been elected to the highest office in the land. His cabinet consists of white supremacists and his official position on climate change – the single biggest threat facing the globe – is that it doesn't exist.
In other words, it's not business as usual – it's terrifyingly wrong and represents one of the darkest moments in the nation's history. It should not be normalised, or celebrated. But is withdrawing sartorial coverage or privilege of his wife really the most effective way of showing this?
Fashionista gushed over their long and thorough coverage of Michelle Obama over the past eight years. Mrs Obama has always been easy to love – she's whip-smart, fashion savvy and has a democratic view of style. But it was Mrs Obama who put to voice the mantra of the Democrat's election campaign, "When they go low, we go high." In other words, you don't repay like for like.
It's understandable that no socially-conscious person wants to celebrate how cute Eva Braun looks in a skirt, but a few points need to be considered here.
The first is that Melania, a Slovenian immigrant, is not going to play that much of a role in this administration. Unlike Jacqueline Kennedy, Mrs Trump, though by all reports ambitious, never wished to become First Lady. She will not be moving into the White House. If she shares her husband's ignorant views – or even cares about them, she's not letting on.
![Enigma: Melania Trump might surprise us.](/web/20161204192043im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/i/n/t/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt37xs.png/1480725547701.jpg)
"I chose not to go into politics and policy," she told GQ in April. "Those policies are my husband's job."
The other thing to keep in mind while we're venting our collective spleen is that ignoring and isolating those with opinions different to our own (however odious) is partly what got the US into this mess in the first place. Imagine if some of the people spreading some of the fake news had a sane friend to check in with so they could be assured that the Pope actually didn't endorse Trump?
![Nobody is going to celebrate her the same way they have Michelle Obama, but punishing a woman for her husband's actions ...](/web/20161204192043im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/s/6/1/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt37xs.png/1480725547701.jpg)
There's also this uncomfortable truth: There have been a few First Ladies who have been wholeheartedly complicit in their husband's appalling policy choices. Nancy Reagan – who had considerable influence over her husband's administration – believed that the AIDS epidemic was best ignored – even when her friend, Rock Hudson, contracted the disease. According to many historians, if the Reagans had acted appropriately the AIDS crisis would never have ballooned into the epidemic it became.
Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign was actually a terribly naive misstep. Drugs were not affecting white youths, they were ravaging poverty-stricken, black, inner city neighbourhoods, a fact ignored by Reagan, who managed to make it worse by spreading racist myths. Yet nobody refused to dress Mrs Reagan; indeed, her style was viewed as exceptionally glamorous.
President George W. Bush fabricated a reason for war, one that has seen more US veterans commit suicide than any before it (to say nothing of the devastation of Iraq). Should Carolina Herrera have severed ties with Laura Bush?
Melania Trump might surprise us, or, she might remain silent. But this anti-First Lady stance seems to be a knee-jerk reaction. Melania, a former model, is an enigma, an apolitical trophy wife whose husband bit off more than he could chew. Her most discernible quality is her appearance. Perhaps this is why the fashion elite are denouncing her, there's not much else anyone can denounce.
Certainly, nobody is going to celebrate her the same way they have Mrs Obama, but punishing a woman for her husband's actions seems like an echo of the petty grand-standing Donald Trump is already known for. Besides, the woman to watch is Ivanka.
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