While the Senate health-care vote looked murky and the president’s flirtatious admission about Russian hacking seemed ambiguous, eagle-eyed Washington observers were able to declare one thing with certainty last weekend: Melania Trump and her step-daughter Ivanka wore the same dress to a wedding.
Well, almost.
Pretty close.
Too close for the same event, at least. Probably.
To celebrate the sanctity of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s third marriage on Saturday, Melania Trump wore a pale pink number, soft and flowy with what the Daily Mail called a “pleated overlay” on its top half. Ivanka wore a similarly contoured dress in a similar shade of pink with a similar drapey overlay on the top half. But without pleats.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his fiancee are married by Mike Pence in front of Trump, Melania and Ivanka https://t.co/gZdizXS7Wc pic.twitter.com/KJ6Ps9jXCx
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 25, 2017
Why are @IvankaTrump and @FLOTUS wearing the same dress? Or is it just similar?
— Clare Maher (@Claremaher74) June 25, 2017
This high-fashion reference to “A Handmaid’s Tale” revealed itself outside an auditorium on the National Mall, before the ceremony officiated by President Trump. Mnuchin, 54, married Louise Linton, 36, a former journalist, law student and actress. Mnuchin was a film producer before joining the administration; he stepped down from his company and appointed Linton as CEO, which didn’t go over too well with ethics watchdogs, which led to her resignation.
In describing the Trump ladies’ sartorial display, the Mail noted that Ivanka and Melania’s dresses matched the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses. They were not bridesmaids. This opens another can of worms about propriety.
Letitia Baldrige was too busy spinning in her grave over the Trumps’ hundreds of previous violations of social norms to comment.
Thankfully, headlines about the White House’s threat of military action against Syria arrived before this controversy boiled over into the weekly news cycle, scorching all concerned in its path.
