the times | Thursday January 13 2022 7the table
KATIE WILSON FOR THE TIMESWhat would you pay for Melania’s
hat — try $273,000 for starters
Anna Murphy
her eponymous fashion brand in
2018 — Melania’s star still shines
for many.
The lucky purchaser of “Head of
State” will also receive a digital
iteration of Coulon’s watercolour of
their queen in said hat — an NFT,
or non-fungible token. This has
presumably been conceived to
facilitate showing off the work in a
digital milieu to anyone who is
unable to swing by chez eux. (And
chez eux, I’ll wager, might just be
at Mar-a-Lago, and have been
acquired under the auspices of
Trump International Realty.) The
bad news is that they have missed
their chance when it comes to the
NFT entitled “Melania’s Vision”,
another Coulon rendering — this
time of her eyes — sold as a limited
edition for $150 last month.
Former first ladies do not normally
hock their cast-offs. Indeed, it’s an
unprecedented act. Instead — if they
have been worn on an occasion of
state — they are bequeathed to the
National Archives. The website states
that “a portion of the proceeds
derived from this auction” will go to
charity, but a request by The New
York Times for clarification on this
matter from Melania’s office has not
as yet been answered.
Melania put her QVC jewellery
and skincare lines on ice when her
husband was in office. Is this a sign
that she, like Donald, is gearing up
for a relaunch?L
ooking for a wardrobe
refresh for 2022? That single
item that will transform your
look and get you noticed like
never before? Got a spare
— at time of writing — $273,636
knocking around? In which case how
about a hat that is wide of brim, deep
of crown, notorious of owner and
very, very white indeed?
Better hurry. You have 11 days to
secure the headgear last sighted on
Melania Trump on the balcony of the
White House during Emmanuel and
Brigitte Macron’s state visit to
Washington in 2018. Yes, the Former
Flotus Fedora — originally the
finishing touch to a white tailored
ensemble by Michael Kors — is
available to the highest bidder on
melaniatrump.com. For those whodared to think that it was over for
the Trumps after the presidential
election of 2020 — be that politically
or sartorially — here comes further
soul-shrinking evidence that it is not.
The hat forms part of the “Head
of State”(geddit?) collection, a
triumvirate of treats that also
encompasses a watercolour by
Marc-Antoine Coulon of Melania
sporting what was one of her less
controversial headgear choices as
first lady. (The prize for most
controversial has to go to the pith
helmet she wore on safari in Kenya,
although there’s a close challenge
from the similarly colonialist cream
fedora she wore in front of the
Sphinx in Cairo.)
Which is not to say that this hat
— designed by Hervé Pierre, a New
York-based designer turned stylist
— did not prompt debate at the
time. Melania certainly never
ignored the semantics of dress, and
the symbolism of all that white was
hard to miss. But what was the
significance of the shade-throwing
brim, which served to render
Melania’s gaze even more
unreadable than usual? Did it
evoke her supposed ambivalence
towards the political role that some
say she felt forced into? Was she
being a tease, taunting the media
tendency to try and read her every
facial expression in search of
truths about her relationship with
The Donald?
Such questions will not be in
the mind of would-be purchasers,
I would imagine. For them,
Melania’s determinedly 0.01 per
cent aesthetic has always been
part of the Trump dream. And
while another Trump princess,
Donald’s daughter Ivanka, may be
irreparably tarnished among the
urbane New York set who were
once her friends — she shutteredHarry
Wallopthis: the app’s suggestions
Sacla No 1 classic
basil pesto:
2.9g salt per 100g
Swap Sacla Rooted in
Nature organic
tomato and basil
pasta sauce:
0.68g salt per 100gPringles Sizzl’n
Kickin’ Sour Cream
crisps:
3g sat fat per 100g
Swap Penn State
sour cream and
chive pretzels:
1g sat fat per 100gPot Noodle Chicken &
Mushroom King:
8.6g sat fat per 100g
Swap Pot Noodle
Cheese & Tomato
Lost the Pot Noodle:
0.4g sat fat per 100gFever-Tree
Refreshingly Light
Mediterranean
tonic water:
4.8g sugar per 100g
Swap Schweppes
slimline tonic water:
0g sugar per 100gMars bar :
59.9g sugar and 8.1g
sat fat per 100g
Swap Alpen Light
chocolate and fudge
cereal bar:
16g sugar and 2.7g
sat fatLe Rustique
camembert:
14g sat fat per 100g
Swap Rowan Glen
natural cottage
cheese:
1.1g sat fat per 100gFormer first
ladies do not
normally hock
their cast-offs
Melania Trump in
2018, in the hat
being auctioned