Melania Trump, the bunny who has become first lady
The new tenant of the White House is not like the others. It is not clear that he has university studies, but he does have a background as a lingerie model and the suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant when he arrived in North America.
Melania Trump (46) has a difficult goal ahead of her. Donald Trump's wife (70) must make Americans forget one of their best first ladies, Michelle Obama (52). Although at the moment she has only said that she intends to have a "traditional role" within the White House, what is certain is that Melania's biography is enough to make a movie, and one of the good ones.
The smartest in her class
The first lady was born Melanija Knavs in Sevnica, a small town in the former Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). The daughter of Viktor, a communist who worked as a farmer, and Amalija, who was in charge of growing onions in the family garden, had an older sister, Inés, with whom she had a great relationship. Melania already stood out in her first school years for being very clear about her dream. "She wanted to get out of the city and see the world. She didn't want to settle. You could tell she was not like other children her age," recalls Mirjana Jelancic, a classmate at Sava Kladinka school.
With parents struggling to get better in life, they both landed higher-paying jobs. Viktor started a business and Amalija started working in the fashion industry. This led them to buy a house in the so-called 'Beverly Hills' of Sevnica, not because of the majesty of the buildings, but because who lived there was no longer considered a simple worker.
Discovered in the middle of the street
"The boys liked her and she was always very neat," says Mirjana. An exuberant physicist who caught the attention of photographer Stane Jerko: "It was 1987 and I was walking through the streets of Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia where Melania was sent to study) when I saw her sitting on the stairs of an institute. I asked her what If I could take some pictures of him and he answered that he had classes and he couldn't miss it. However, we made an appointment and I was able to see his potential. "
After this stroke of luck, Melania enrolled in a modeling school, put aside her studies (there is some information that suggests that later she studied architecture first and others that she completed a fashion master's degree, but none has been confirmed) and began a successful career as a top. She was just 18 years old when she was chosen by the Vezenine Bled clothing firm, one of the most important textile industries in Yugoslavia before the war, to be her image. Four years later, at 22, she came second in the Face of the year contest organized by the Slovenian magazine Jana.
Bring the European Fashion Capitals to America
Months later, Melania gets a contract with a modeling agency, changes her last name to Knauss, and travels to Paris and Milan. There she soon found a place in parades and productions. However, it does not quite fit. She changed her hair color to blonde (she is a natural brunette) and, according to the gossip, she put on a breast and shaped her body with hours and hours of gym. Tired of appearing in editorials of light second-division clothing publications and having mastered five languages (Slovenian, German, French, Serbian and English), in October 1996 she packed her bags and moved to the United States.
Did you work illegally in North America?
Although Melania said she had moved to New York in October 1996, the Associated Press agency claimed to be in possession of papers that showed that the model had charged $ 20,000 for some work done between August and September of the same year. Dates on which, according to AP, she was only in possession of a tourist visa (years later, Donald and her team denied such information). Be that as it may, it was stepping on the land of the free and Melania began to triumph. In fact, they say that Hugh Hefner (90), owner of Playboy, occasionally hosted her in his mansion. The legend also tells that he posed for said magazine. The photos, if they exist, will be in a tightly closed drawer. However, something must be true in this story because Donald and Melania attended the 50th anniversary party of that publication in 2004. When the river sounds ...
And she finally meets the man of her life
It is in 1998, in the middle of New York Fashion Week, when Melania and Donald coincide at a party at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan (New York). The crush is instantaneous and they start dating. They soon become the couple of the moment and there is no event worth its salt that does not have them.
Trump, a born provocateur, and Melania, a model who longed to appear in the most influential magazines in the world, achieve their goals. In 2000, he poses for Playboy magazine, and she appears on the cover of GQ England with unsuitable photographs for a first lady.
After the scandal (generated by the 24 years that separate them and her profession), they spend five years being the David (41) and Victoria (42) Beckhams of the most elite business circle in New York. She is progressively moving away from fashion and dedicating herself to being a socialite. Basically, she participates in television shows as a collaborator. She gets to go to the Oprah Winfrey show (62), is a Miss USA jury and appears on Trump's reality show, The Apprentice. They go to the red carpets of the Emmys, the Oscars and even the prestigious MET gala. In fact, in 2004 she went as one of Karl Lagerfeld's (83) personal guests to the Chanel show.
Multi-million dollar wedding
With Melania integrated into New York high society, Donald takes the plunge and decides to propose to her. The ceremony, held in Palm Springs, Florida on January 22, 2005, brought together hundreds of guests, including Hillary (69) and Bill Clinton (70). Surprise!
Already become Mrs. Trump, Melania takes the cover of Vogue USA the following month. A piece of information that only means one thing; It has been accepted by the women of the Upper East Side. Photographed by Mario Testino (60), Melania is wearing in all its splendor the wedding dress that Dior created exclusively for her and that cost $ 200,000.
That's when Melania realizes that she has leveled up. So much so that when she announces pregnancy at the end of 2005, the couple is portrayed by Annie Leibovitz (67) in a snapshot in which she shows off her gut and he shows off her car.
Supportive mother and businesswoman
On March 20, 2006 (the year in which she finally became an American citizen thanks to her wedding), Barron William Trump (11) was born, Melania's first child, and Donald's fifth child. She has devoted herself body and soul to him and has only abandoned her role as mother to support solidarity initiatives, such as the Make a Wish foundation, or to make her first steps as a businesswoman.
In this last aspect, Melania launched a jewelry line on the market in 2010 that she herself was in charge of advertising in spaces similar to La Tienda en casa. They sold out in 45 minutes. Seeing the success with which she started her business, two years later she created her own anti-aging creams that contained caviar and that were around the price of 150 dollars. Again, she succeeded.
Despite having proven that business was her thing too, Melania prefers to stay home, controlling her son's education and participating in New York social life since 2013.
Little virtual life
Unlike other 'women of', she is not very prone to tell her day to day on social networks. A Twitter user since 2010, she updates with data on her family activities, but nothing excessive. At the moment, she has 419,000 followers, a figure that will skyrocket in the next few days after her arrival at the White House. On Instagram, she has only 24 publications, most of them made since her husband began his career for the presidency of the United States in 2015. This social network is where, presumably, she is most active as a first lady. The reason? Minutes after learning of her husband's victory, she changed her username to @firstladymelaniatrump and in two days she has published two photos. In addition, her followers went from 6,000 to almost 15,000 in less than 24 hours.
In the shadow of her husband during the campaign
When many thought that her kind nature would help counteract her husband's verbal violence, Melania has not played a relevant role: "I prefer to focus on my role as mother." But the truth is that some doubt her communicative qualities. In one of the few speeches she has made during the campaign, she was accused of plagiarizing one made by Michelle Obama in 2008. A controversy that her husband's press team solved by claiming that one of her assistants had copied it. After this, Melania has only addressed voters a few words in small cities and it was not until October 18 that she decided to give an interview to Fox News defending her husband for his macho comments.
Will it be up to par with its predecessors?
Melania's life has little or nothing to do with that of Michelle Obama, Laura Bush (70) or Hillary Clinton (the three previous first ladies). However, the media in her country have highlighted her know-how during her husband's victory speech and the subsequent visit to the White House. Maybe that's all it has to offer. For now, it is already an icon of style that makes every garment that wears sell out instantly. The white Ralph Lauren jumpsuit you wore on election night? Exhausted. And that cost 4,000 dollars.
At the moment, Melania has four years to go to show that she can do the same or better than anyone else. Time will tell if it surprises us.
