Melania's hat, shorts in winter and other eye-catching looks
Hats have long been a staple of First Lady inauguration dressing
- Published
Inauguration day is all about pomp, pageantry - and pictures.
The clothes worn on this world stage - the colour, cut and details - take the spotlight. From Melania's striking hat to Usha's fashion forward overcoat, here's a quick roundup of some of the day's most memorable looks.
Melania Trump
The first lady's serious look was in stark contrast to her 2017 inauguration outfit
Melania Trump kicked off inauguration day with an outfit that has all the hallmarks of her favoured first lady style: sharply cut, with spiked heels and a dramatic flourish via the headgear. It is simultaneously serious and chic.
It also speaks to her love of hats, which has sometimes got her in trouble – for example her widely criticised colonial-style pith helmet on safari in Kenya.
Hats have long been a staple of First Lady inauguration dressing, from Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat to the hats worn by Nancy Reagan to each of her husband's inaugurations, the first one "Reagan red" and the second one blue.
But while some hats feel like an addendum to an outfit, others take on more main character energy – as does Melania Trump's today.
The brim is wide enough and the contrast between the cream ribbon and navy hat big enough that it draws the eyes upwards – even if it obscures the eyes of the wearer, a person who is famously hard to read.
What designer the first lady wears to the inauguration is the subject of fascination – and an opportunity to transmit a message. That Melania chose New York Designer Adam Lippes and a coordinating hat by Eric Javits, was a marked shift of gear.
She may have worn the American fashion designer Ralph Lauren to her husband's last inauguration, but much more frequently turns to the big European houses. Unlike Lauren, neither Lippes nor Javits are such household, starry names. Fittingly, Lippes recently opened a new boutique in Palm Beach, where the Trump's have Mar-a-Lago, or their "southern White House".
Very much on-brand is the price tag: Melania is known for her extravagant tastes – many of her outfits while previously First Lady had price tags running well into the thousands – and Lippes' dresses, for example, go from $1,200 (£1,000) up to over $9,000 (£7,500).
As with much of Melania's aesthetic, her look today will most likely be the work of a collaboration with her stylist Hervé Pierre, a French fashion and costume designer who has worked at Balmain, Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang and is a former creative director at Carolina Herrera.
His extensive experience working in the theatre will mean he understands well the idea of how to make an outfit sing on a stage – although no theatre will be quite as exposed, watched or critiqued as the world stage playing out today.
Jill and Joe Biden
Former first lady Jill Biden yet again wore a purplish blue from head to toe.
Blue is a very on-brand colour for the entire Biden family and it has come to represent the administration of the last four years.
At her husband's swearing-in ceremony in 2021, Jill wore a blue coat created by designer/founder Alexandra O'Neill for the New York–based luxury womenswear label Markarian. It reportedly quintupled sales for the designer. It was custom made and embroidered with Swarovski crystals, plus had a pandemic-era matching face mask.
Both Bidens have chosen today to dress in clothes by the all-American designer Ralph Lauren, whose clothes and back story are often seen as synonymous with the American dream.
It comes as no surprise: Jill has worn his clothes throughout the last four years and was at his fashion show in the Hamptons last September.
Her husband recently awarded Lauren the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation's highest civilian honour - and in the process made him the first fashion designer to receive the distinction.
Ralph Lauren suits have been a fitting uniform of choice for the outgoing president. On the White House website as he leaves office, it sums up his presidency: "for all Americans, a country for all Americans, a future for all Americans."
You could argue his Ralph Lauren suits are also designed to not leave any Americans out – never straying too far from classic blue and classic lines.
Ivanka Trump
First daughter Ivanka Trump matched Melania's serious colour palette with an emerald green skirt suit with a matching hat.
The hourglass silhouette – the cinched in waist and fuller skirt – felt pointed and intentional. It was reminiscent of Dior's glamorous New Look, which ushered in a new era in fashion after World War Two.
The asymmetry of the cut, however, sounded a note of continuation: Ivanka wore a white Oscar de la Renta jacket with an asymmetric handkerchief hem for inauguration day in 2017.
The first daughter's outfit feels like it could be harking back to the work of Adolfo Sardiña, a Cuban-born American fashion designer who started out as an apprentice milliner at Bergdorf Goodman in the late 1940s and went on to be known for his spectacular hats, which were worn by Nancy Reagan to both of her husband's inaugurations.
Usha Vance
The lawyer and wife of Vice President-elect JD Vance, Usha Vance's most high profile appearance to date was speaking the 2024 Republican National Convention. For the occasion she chose a cobalt blue off-the-shoulder Badgley Mischka dress, which retails for $495 (£400). According to a spokesperson speaking to industry website WWD, Vance must have bought the garment herself as the brand wasn't consulted.
But there were clear signs of a pivot to more high-fashion choices this weekend in Washington, when the incoming Second Lady wore a custom black velvet gown by Oscar de la Renta for the Vice President's Dinner and a smart white double-breasted coat to the wreath-laying ceremony in Arlington cemetery earlier in the day.
Today, she chose an overcoat with a strikingly fashion-forward detail: a scarf intentionally tucked into her waist-height belt. Is it a sign of a more stylised image to come as Vance takes her place as the second lady?
Senator John Fetterman wore shorts and a hoodie to the inauguration
John Fetterman
Suits, ties, shoulder pads, pearls; these are the traditional attire of inauguration day. But John Fetterman, the US senator from Pennsylvania since 2023, has never been one to stick to traditional dress codes – he wore a Carhartt hoodie with a picture of a bow-tie printed onto it for the White House Correspondents' Dinner last year.
Still, if tradition didn't mean Fetterman opted for a pair of trousers, you would have thought the weather might – temperatures in Washington today are so low that the ceremony has been moved inside for the first time since 1985. Yet Fetterman showed up coatless, in only a hoodie, and wearing shorts.
It is fitting – Fetterman is all about bucking convention – he was, after all, the first Senate Democrat to meet with Trump since the election.
Hillary Clinton
At Bill Clinton's 1997 inauguration, Hillary Clinton wore a candy floss-pink outfit by Oscar de la Renta. And to her husband's first swearing-in ceremony in 1993 she went for an unusually busy look for a first lady on inauguration day, when block colours tend to be the order of the day: a checked suit by Arkansas designer Connie Fails and a blue velour hat by Darcy Creech.
In 2017 at Trump's first inauguration, she wore a white and cream Ralph Lauren pantsuit - the outfit that clearly makes her feel most battle-ready and professional.
Today, in marked contrast to her previous palette, she has gone for a grave navy. On her coat there is a single brooch.
Its details remain unclear but brooches are often the site of sartorial messaging and Clinton knows it. She recently wore a bald eagle brooch – a national symbol – with the US flag on it for the funeral of Jimmy Carter.
The look was by British sustainable designer Stella McCartney, a move that feels like it could be aimed at the incoming administration's climate plans.
Trump has confirmed plans to once again pull the US out of the Paris agreement, which tries to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
Elon Musk
Musk has gone for a hint of dishevelment on a serious and ceremonial day
Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, CEO of Tesla and owner of X has, along with a bevy of fellow tech entrepreneurs that some have dubbed "the broligarchs", been turning heads with their fashion choices of late.
Most recently in Musk's case, a Belstaff jacket drew the internet's eyes, while Mark Zuckerberg's style makeover has seen him transform from "normcore" grey T-shirts and inconspicuous jeans to luxury labels, his own brand of slogan T-shirts with Greek and Latin phrases and million pound watches.
Today, Musk is wearing a suit that looks unremarkable except for one detail: a slightly wonky tie.
In a move that could easily be out of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson's sartorial playbook, Musk has gone for a hint of dishevelment on a serious and ceremonial day.
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