Melania Trump’s boater-style hat and other key inauguration looks

President Donald Trump and wife Melania attend a morning service at St. John's Church on Inauguration Day, January 20. Jeenah Moon/Reuters via CNN Newsource

With her eyes almost entirely obscured by the rim of her wool boater-style hat, Melania Trump stood behind U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on stage at the United States Capitol Rotunda as he pledged the oath of office.

Designed by New York-based milliner Eric Javits, Trump’s hat was an austere flourish to a neat, military-style ensemble. Her navy silk wool double-breasted coat was nipped at the waist and worn with bare legs and stiletto heels.

The piece was designed by Adam Lippes, a New York-based designer who has dressed Biden and Michelle Obama. (Trump has previously worn Lippes several times, most recently choosing a shirtdress from the fashion house last summer while out in New York and wore the label several times during her husband’s first term.)

Beneath the tailored coat was a silk wool pencil skirt and an ivory silk crepe blouse folded into a sharp neckline, all hand-sewn by Lippes’ team in New York. “The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our first lady, Mrs. Melania Trump,” Lippes said in a statement. “Mrs. Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”

The only sign that this was the coldest inauguration ceremony in 40 years came from her black leather gloves.

But it was the millinery that turned heads. “(With) her face half hidden by her hat, Melania remains aloof,” said professor Nichola Gutgold, author of “Electing Madam Vice President: When Women Run, Women Win,” in an email to CNN.

She appeared elusive, with a slight combative edge to her ensemble — something that is not unusual for Trump. Throughout her first term as first lady from 2017 to 2021, Trump’s stylistic evolution came to include more structured, military-inspired dresses and skirt suits in khaki, navy and gray.

“As the public persona emerged, she still craved privacy,” Kate Bennett, a former CNN White House correspondent, said ahead of the inauguration. “Her clothes, in my opinion, really reflected that. … Her silhouettes became long-sleeved, cinched waists, hard shoulders, longer hemline, like almost a military-esque vibe. I think that’s because it felt like armour … Because she underwent four years of really intense scrutiny.”

The incoming first lady’s precise, structured outfit was thrown into sharper focus when she stood near Jill Biden, who had chosen a softer silhouette, on the steps of the White House.

Biden’s relaxed, tie-waist overcoat and blouse — both in the bipartisan color purple — was designed by Ralph Lauren. The storied U.S. label was credited with creating Trump’s 2017 powder blue inauguration look, which was heavily likened to Jackie Kennedy.

If, eight years ago, Trump hoped to emulate one of the most revered first ladies in history, then she was trying something new this time around. Others interpreted the look through a more regal lens.

Gutgold said Trump’s hat evoked a “Queenly aura,” while chief fashion critic for the New York Times, Vanessa Friedman, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump appeared “more royal family governess than necessarily American first lady.” In 2017, she used the soft power of fashion to align herself with perhaps the most accessible presidential wife. Now, it seems her outfit is about creating distance — a physical shield to the outside world.

Instead it was Usha Vance, wife of new Vice President JD Vance, who seemed to be taking cues from Kennedy. Vance was spotted in a custom Oscar de la Renta pastel pink cashmere coat dress — a hue that seems inextricable from Kennedy’s legacy, from the bubblegum pink Christian Dior gown she wore to receive the French minister of culture to the White House in 1962 to the Chanel suit worn the day her husband was assassinated.

Similarly, Priscilla Chan arrived with her husband Mark Zuckerberg in a baby blue twin-set and three strands of pearls: a 60s-inspired look that seemed to be a nod to the late first lady.

But not everyone was using the fashion history rulebook. American journalist and wife of Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, arrived at the ceremony in a white suit worn shirtless — exposing her matching lingerie-style top. And while Melania Trump made sure to wear a U.S. designer, Ivanka Trump embraced a continental slant to her dressing, attending the event in a forest green beret-style hat and Christian Dior bag.