This was inauguration style like we’ve never seen – but there was one breakout fashion star

From trowelled-on make up to Lauren Sanchez’s lacy white bra (because what could be more appropriate at the swearing in of a president than some deeply tanned cleavage? Then again, given this president…), this was inauguration style as we’ve never seen it.

Roundheads versus Cavaliers. On the one hand, the Democrat women in their dark pantsuits; Hillary Clinton’s blue Stella McCartney accessorised with a Peace on Earth brooch and a startling, late-life fluttering of false eyelashes (Jill Biden looked as though she was wearing them too) and Kamala Harris’s black suit, bifurcated with performatively functional zips.

On the other, the Trump family, intensively mining Euro-Royal style and 110mm heels. What an evolution from the start of their previous White House life when they drew from the well of Fox-TV glitz (a colleague who’s been on the channel tells me that when any woman is booked to talk on Fox, no matter how sombre the subject, she’s first plastered with make-up and hosed down with hair spray). This time, even Eric and Lara Trump’s young children, who weren’t born in 2017, had been briefed: just dress like Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

But let’s get the protocol correct and begin with the new First Lady, whose impeccably-fitted navy silk wool coat, by American designer Adam Lippes, with its matching pencil skirt, high- necked ivory silk crepe blouse, wide brimmed hat (designed by her stylist Herve Pierre) and perilously high heels by British based designer Manolo Blahnik, was a reverse mirror view of the monochrome My Fair Lady outfit she wore to lunch with the late Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2019. Needless to say, the hat was the subject of numerous memes.

Hats have been an endangered category at US inaugurations since Clinton wore a much maligned cobalt blue one in 1993. Social media had various explanations for the hat’s belated Lazarus stunt. It was either a handy weapon to ward off her husband’s kiss, or a way to avoid eye contact with pretty much everyone.

Or possibly a striking complement to the rest of her outfit and a way to showcase the lesser spotted bird – American millinery? At any rate, designer Eric Javits disarmingly professed himself thrilled to see his hat make the final cut (remember how last time round almost no designers would align themselves publicly with the Trumps and their wardrobes?). Lippes meanwhile, a darling of New York (largely Democrat voting) fashion editors, reminded us in a statement that: “The tradition of the Presidential Inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our First Lady, Mrs Melania Trump. Mrs Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”

Ivanka, a Princess Grace vision in a forest green Dior Bar jacket skirt-suit, matching pill box hat, Lady Dior bag and French pleated hair, was easily as regal looking as any modern Euro-Royal – potentially more so because they occasionally have to look relatable and wear high-street and she never will.

Ideally, main characters wear US designs to US inaugurations, particularly when one of the leitmotifs of their family campaign is America First. Then again, Delphine Arnault, CEO of Dior, and her parents, Bernard Arnault and Helene Mercier, heads of the most powerful and richest dynasty in luxury fashion, were on the podium along with the First Family. Perhaps the Dior bag can be expensed as sartorial diplomacy in action. Within handbag-hitting distance of the Arnaults were tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google chief Sundar Pichai, many in Republican red ties – possibly the only tie they each possess.

Pregnant Tiffany Trump, the president’s daughter from his second marriage to Marla Maples, had clearly consulted the lexicon of princess looks too, albeit Disney princesses. This requires yards of mermaid hair, a popular vibe at the ceremony, along with Meghan-style pony tails with ribbon side curls. Could French pleats and twirly hair extensions finally challenge the hegemony of the bob in Washington circles?

Tiffany’s legs, in what may be a first for them, were swathed in a modest midnight blue velvet coat. If we needed reminding how Republican style used to be, there was Laura Bush in a smart, but understated, copper coloured dress – similar to the one she wore at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009 – and a simple, single strand pearl necklace that didn’t look overly styled. A former librarian, Bush categorically said she did not wish to become a fashion plate when she entered the White House in 2001 and was true to her word. Her brand of First Lady style was predominantly tidy, appropriate and patriotic.

The breakout fashion star of the 2025 inauguration is surely Usha Vance, the 39-year-old lawyer wife of new vice-president JD. In a flawless, pale pink Oscar de la Renta scarf coat, accessorised with pale suede Manolo Blahnik boots and striking flower earrings (rather than trad Republican pearl studs), she managed to look queenly, but also… warm. Over on the de la Renta Instagram account, things got melodramatic as various commentators threatened to punish the brand for colluding with Vance by boycotting it forever. Presumably this won’t present a huge problem since the crossover between Democrat voters and De la Renta fans is already vanishingly small.

Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren, a big Democrat donor who dressed Jill Biden for the inauguration in 2021, Melania in 2017, and Dr Jill again for the 2025 inauguration, proves that executed in the right spirit – duty to your country – it’s still just about possible to work with First Ladies across the divide without having your brand cancelled.

More take outs from the big day: despite the weather, there were a surprising number of white outfits. Whatever the year or political climate, winter white is a reliable power flex thanks to its ludicrously high upkeep. Bare legs (on Jill Biden and Melania) are another flex, suggesting a life of limos or the circulation of a nine year old. The US presenter on the BBC news channel was interred beneath so much make-up she made the Kardashians look like Pamela Anderson in her nude-face era. Perhaps we could all make our bank accounts great again by investing in Charlotte Tilbury shares.