The Donald's wife has always been influenced by Jfk's wife, but now she has "erased" her sanctuary in the White House. But, underneath, there is a definite (political) reason.
Did Melania Trump Erase Jackie's Trail?
"Now First Lady Melania. Our Jackie O style icon loves her. Call her Melania T." This is what Donald Trump announced shortly after he was elected as president in 2016. And indeed, from her choice of clothing to her choice of furnishings, the 50-year-old former model, who is now Enrica's first lady, has proven time and time again that she is true to her style. In the mind of Trump's wife, John F. Kennedy. That's why it's surprising today that she, Melania, wanted to reverse one of her role model's symbolic spaces in the White House, the Rose Garden adjacent to the Oval Office, which has drawn a flood of criticism (some Ironic indeed) online. But amid the jokes, memes and comparisons ("It looks like a North Korean prison", "It looks like a Soviet mausoleum"), one regret unites all the comments: He picked flowers and colors from Jackie's garden. Why deleted? And above all, why did he uproot those magnificent crabapple trees? With a flood of before and after photos. Yet when Lady Trump announced the garden renovation, she said she wanted to be inspired by Jackie's style. Something is not right.
The Rose Garden: From the Kennedy Aesthetic to Trump
The original Rose Garden was designed by Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, Jackie Kennedy's close friend and landscape architect, after ideas from the presidential couple. Today The Cut recounts Mellon's recollections, telling us that Jackie dreamed of a garden similar in "quality and appearance" to the one she saw during her trip to Europe. So Rachel Mellon carefully selected a seasonal rotation of plants and flowers and "chose crab apple trees because they belong to the rose family and blend well with the latter." In discussing plans for a new White House Rose Garden, Melania said she wanted to restore part of the Kennedys' general vision and announced "white "Jfk" rose bushes. In fact, however, she originally eliminated that aesthetic and removed all the trees except for four large magnolias. The rose garden no longer has color, and a huge lawn now dominates. A garden, as Newsweek writes, "this administration of less and According to the obsessive aesthetic.” But the garden has received so much media (and political) attention due to the fact that in recent months, with the pandemic, it has become a privileged location for conferences and meetings. Donald Trump likes to speak in the Rose Garden because, explains The Washington Post: “Natural light improves his complexion.” So Trump's choice to personalize it right in the middle of the campaign. Presidential campaign political conventions will be held here Even if a federal rule prohibits it: The White House should host only institutional and not overtly political events.
Jackie was his role model.
That Melania was inspired by Jackie Kennedy was clear from her first day as first lady: the baby blue dress Trump wore to the inauguration and designed by Ralph Lauren, an apt reference. Was: It was enough to look at its description. Gloves Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929 - 1994) came from a high-society New York family: her father was a French-born stockbroker, her mother the daughter of bankers. Graduating in art history, she began working as a journalist for The Washington Times, but after marrying JFK she devoted herself to her husband's political rise. French charm, even though she was born and raised in America (she studied in France for a period) and culture gave her the charm that attracted Americans. Her ability to wear formal dresses with recurring stylistic details (string of pearls) and choose casual outfits with apparent carelessness made her a symbol of relaxed and timeless elegance.
Melania and Jackie as All About Eve?
But the game of quoting Jackie has continued on other important occasions, indeed very important ones, those in which style experts could not have helped but notice it. For example, the dinner with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2019: shape of the dress's neckline, long white gloves. The student has surpassed the teacher. But perhaps, as in the perennial game of All About Eve, after having loved and imitated her, the student must "eliminate" the teacher, as she did with the apple trees. But here, the political role that will be played by the garden is worth much more than a legacy of style.
Studied combinations
Not just public events: Melania's stylists must have an immense photographic archive of Jackie Kennedy Onassis to draw from. Because the game of similarities, of combinations is proposed and re-proposed even in informal situations, like this white Pantone and black T-shirt combination.
