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Melania taps little-known Hispanic designer for inaugural debut

WASHINGTON — Mrs Melania Trump on Thursday (Jan 19) picked a little-known New York designer of Hispanic descent and daughter of a wounded veteran, for her first outfit celebrating husband Donald’s presidential inauguration.

Mrs Melania Trump wallking down the steps during a wreath laying ceremony with US President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on Jan 19, 2017. Photo: AFP

Mrs Melania Trump wallking down the steps during a wreath laying ceremony with US President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on Jan 19, 2017. Photo: AFP

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WASHINGTON — Mrs Melania Trump on Thursday (Jan 19) picked a little-known New York designer of Hispanic descent and daughter of a wounded veteran, for her first outfit celebrating husband Donald’s presidential inauguration.

The choice of a knee-length, black coat from Ms Norisol Ferrari for her visit to the Arlington National Cemetery was something of an inspired choice for Mr Trump, who has been criticised in the past for favouring high-end European clothes.

A string of designers have refused to work with the incoming first lady because of her husband’s divisive politics, making her sartorial choices for his inaugural events even more closely watched than usual.

“God, I hope we can be a less angry nation,” Ms Ferrari told Women’s Wear Daily, saying she did not agree with designers who wanting to boycott Mr Trump.

“I am absolutely opposed to discrimination in any way. I wanted to give her her own voice. Empowering women is all that matters to me,” she told WWD.

The designer, who was born in the United States and is of Colombian and Venezuelan descent, said she was “honoured” to dress Mrs Melania Trump, who will on Friday become only the second foreign-born first lady in US history.

“Mrs Trump’s visit to Arlington was particularly poignant for me, as my biological father is a wounded veteran. His experience and the lifelong disabilities he sustained, affected my family deeply,” she told WWD.

Ms Ferrari declined to say how she voted in last year’s election, in which much of the fashion industry supported Mr Trump’s Democratic rival Mrs Hillary Clinton, and said she appreciated the exposure.

“I’m an independent designer, female-owned business, a first-generation minority woman,” she told WWD.

“Women in general don’t get opportunities like this in fashion. I’m very fortunate to one have such a beautiful muse.”

Clever choice or not, the 46-year-old former model was heavily criticised on social media for appearing grumpy, hiding behind dark sunglasses at the cemetery and arriving in Washington from New York looking funereal.

But US media did gush over the green cascading coat and matching dress worn by her 35-year-old step daughter Ms Ivanka, who unlike Mrs Melania is moving straight to Washington with her husband, Mr Jared Kushner, an incoming White House advisor.

Ms Ivanka’s outfit was reportedly the work of famed New York designer Carolina Herrera, who was born and brought up in Venezuela before moving to the United States and becoming a designer par excellence of timeless elegance. AFP

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