Ivanka Trump’s £16,000 UK Visit Wardrobe from 2019 Was a Mere ‘Bid to Outshine Melania’

Ivanka Trump’s fancy outfits during the Trump family’s UK visit in 2019 still get people talking. While then-First Lady Melania Trump’s outfits exuded understated elegance, Ivanka’s selections raised eyebrows too high with speculation that she was attempting to overshadow her very own stepmother.

During the three-day visit in June 2019, Melania’s clothes were a masterclass in chic minimalism. She rewore a stylish Celine coat from her existing wardrobe and donned pieces like a Gucci dress featuring London landmarks, subtly paying homage to the host nation.

Melania’s outfits conveyed a message and complimented her husband without overshadowing him. In contrast, Ivanka’s wardrobe choices were nothing short of lavish. Reports from that time suggested she spent a staggering £14,000 on outfits for the first day alone.

Her most extravagant ensemble was an Alessandra Rich floral print outfit worn to Westminster Abbey. It consisted £855 skirt, £565 belt, £1,558.96 jacket, and a conspicuous £1,950 Philip Treacy hat, totaling nearly £5,000, as per The Mirror .

The pinnacle of Ivanka’s sartorial splurge was the pale blue Carolina Herrera gown she wore to the Buckingham Palace state banquet. With floral embellishments, a billowy pleated skirt, and a price tag of £9,232.96, this gown alone fueled speculation that Ivanka aimed to outshine Melania.

On subsequent days, Ivanka maintained her lavish fashion parade, sporting a £1,700 Burberry polka dot two-piece ensemble for a roundtable discussion. By the visit’s end, her wardrobe expenditure had reached a jaw-dropping £16,000, a figure that sparked debates about the appropriateness of such extravagance during an official diplomatic trip.

The power struggle between the Trump women is deeply rooted; remember Melania’s army green jacket? That incident also has a different context altogether in the broader Trump family dynamics.

The question of why former first lady Melania initially wore her famous “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” was answered four months after that incident when she finally acknowledged that it was really “for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticizing me,” rather than the immigrants she was seeing. However, a book by New York Times reporter Katie Rogers says that the jacket’s meaning was actually intended for Ivanka.

As per the book American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, From Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden , written by Rogers, Melania “spent her four years in the White House waging a war against Ivanka.”

According to a copy of the book obtained by the New York Post, the two women had allegedly engaged in an “internal power struggle” to fulfill the position of the first lady, which Ivanka attempted to assume when her stepmother postponed moving to the White House to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement.

According to Rogers, Melania “was aware that her husband had suggested that his eldest daughter would be helping to share the responsibilities of being First Lady, and this was not a development that pleased her,” as per Newsweek .