Melania Trump: what she wore

She wore an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini

For the first time that day…

(Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, 1960)

Of course, Melania Trump did not wear a bikini to visit the border country between Texas and Mexico. She did not hide in the locker room rather than step out and face the gawkers. But she did the next worse thing… Melania wore a Zara jacket priced around $45 with an angry message on the back: “I don’t really care do U”

The T-shirt message tells us what you the wearer really thinks. Melania’s message reflects her thinking-- but why is she so alienated? My guess is that refugee children and their fate hardly crosses Melania’s mind. Certainly not enough to run off and get a Zara jacket.

Zara, Melania’s choice may provide clues to her thinking. Zara began in Galicia, Spain—the most northwest province of Spain. A woman, Rosalia Mera, co-founded the company with her husband and became the richest self-made female entrepreneur in the world. Zara’s secret to success was bringing new designs to market with incredible speed and cost efficiency.

Melania may know nothing of Rosalia's story. The casual-green jacket with the modest price tag may remind her of you youth, the days when she had to pinch pennies as a struggling model. We all long for the carefree days of our youth, and Melania may miss those exciting early days on the runway.

Melania’s life changed suddenly and took a quantum leap with the marriage to Trump. He got elected President. Talk about a game changer! Melania became a FLOTUS, the First Lady of the United States. Even the name sounds uptight and boxed-in. 

Melania showed a lapse in judgement. Possibly she gambled too riskily by shouting to the heavens, asking for a life intervention from the Higher Powers. 

As the Princess chained to the top of Trump Tower, Melania has no easy way off the island. She may be eligible for a break—the jacket actually had a free-flowing, casual quality— reminding us of the relaxed world Melania seeks while no one listens. 

Donald got promoted, possibly to the job he cannot do, and Melania may be suffering the same fate. She wants a fashion line of her own. Anything other than the First Lady’s stuffy uniform. 

Melania has to look a certain way and act a certain way. She’s tired of the whole fishbowl existence and, just like the immigrants plight captured by the Emma Lazarus poem at the Statue of Liberty... Melania yearns to breath free.

The New Colossus 

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"