Melania Trump's Inappropriate State Dinner Dress Fails To Upstage 'Beautiful' Kate Middleton
Well, well, well. It seems that we have a clear winner in the fashion face-off between Melania Trump and Princess Catherine during the U.S. state visit to the U.K. On Wednesday, September 17, Melania and President Donald Trump arrived on the grounds of Windsor Castle for their historic second state visit in England, where they were welcomed with full ceremonial honors by King Charles III and other members of the British royal family. First to greet the couple were Prince William and Kate Middleton, who stunned in an Emila Wickstead dress coat for the occasion. (As they exchanged pleasantries, Donald tried to charm Kate using one flirty word that must have had Melania suppressing an eye roll.) As for the first lady, she opted for a gray skit that perfectly matched her husband's tuxedo, topped by her favorite fashion accessory: a wide-brimmed purple hat that obscured much of her face.
That evening, she joined the lavish state banquet hosted by King Charles and Queen Camilla in a bright yellow Carolina Herrera dress with an oversized lavender (baby pink?) belt. The reactions to her look were swift and brutal. "What in the world is Melania wearing...." one Instagram user said of her outfit. Others felt the neckline was a little too risqué for the royal event. "The belt is just....nuh-uh. I may be mistaken, but isn't it inappropriate protocol to wear off the shoulder to such a function?" (In fact, it isn't; contrary to popular belief, there's no strict rule against wearing shoulder-baring styles to royal functions such as state dinners.)
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Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales was the picture of class and elegance in her Phillipa Lepley gown for the state banquet.
What was Melania thinking?
Unfortunately for Melania Trump, the reaction to her state banquet dress wasn't quite what she had envisioned when choosing her look for the royal function. Instead, it made her the butt of the joke as trolls had a field day tearing her ensemble apart. "The dress ... what is it a banana tribute??? No idea of what is protocol," one user on Instagram scoffed. Another on X mocked Melania for having no taste in fashion despite having unlimited resources and access to the world's top designers and stylists. "With billions at her disposal, she wore a putrid yellow dress of unimaginative design with a lavender(!) belt and green jeweled earrings. Did Donny cut off her credit cards or did he just not want her to outshine him?"
In light of her faux pas, a New York stylist explained to the Daily Mail why the first lady might have gone for something so bold and controversial. "Perhaps she was seeking something cheerful for this visit, especially as her husband's mother is from Scotland, where the royal family regularly visits," Liz Teich exclusively told the outlet.
However, even experts agree her outfit was horrendous. The yellow dress was already loud enough on its own, and the addition of her lavender belt and emerald teardrop earrings only made things worse. "There are too many touch-points here, and we should be looking at her first and the dress second," said celebrity stylist Samantha Brown, who thought that her dress felt too "summery" and casual for the state dinner. "Melania typically makes strong, informed wardrobe choices, [but] this dress doesn't rank with her best looks," the stylist concluded.