First lady’s faux pas jacks up jacket’s price

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This article was published 30/06/2018 (2942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Melania Trump made a surprise visit last week to a shelter for migrants, but a not-so-hidden message is what really made headlines.

The first lady caught flak for the ensemble she opted to wear to and from Texas: an olive green anorak from retailer Zara with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” printed on the back in graffiti-style writing.

Those who were lucky enough to own the jacket seen ’round the world before the incident are now able to cash it in for a pretty penny. The coat, which has since sold out, originally retailed for approximately US$39, but is currently fetching exponentially higher prices on second-hand sites.

EBay has a few live listings for pre-owned versions of the jacket. At the time of publication, the price for one of them had reached US$895. The posting said the seller originally purchased the jacket in a Zara store approximately two years ago. Another eBay user sold the coveted item for the low price of US$500 in an auction that ended Tuesday.

Novelty companies such as Redbubble are also looking to profit from the first lady’s faux pas by selling mugs and green T-shirts touting the same saying. And there appears to be a market for the gimmicky Melania merch: in a post on second-hand sales app Poshmark, a user wrote that they were looking to buy the jacket not “as a political statement, but a Halloween costume.”

The youthful jacket sharply contrasts with the first lady’s typically bold, foreign-flavoured and higher-priced wardrobe. In public appearances, the first lady has worn designs by Dolce & Gabbana (remember her US$51,500 D&G jacket at the G7 summit in Italy?), Del Pozo, Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy and Valentino, often with daringly high Christian Louboutin heels.

It’s not the first time the first lady’s fashion choices have caused a stir.

Last August, a pair of Trump’s signature spike heels earned her a round of bafflement as she boarded Air Force One bound for Texas to tour devastation after hurricane Harvey. She had changed into sneakers by the time she and the president landed.

At the second 2016 presidential debate, she showed up in a fuchsia silk blouse with a large bow at the neck, long known as a “pussy bow blouse.” That was just days after reports surfaced that her husband had made lewd remarks years earlier about grabbing women by the genitals.

On the other side of the political aisle, former first lady Michelle Obama routinely caught grief from some critics for going sleeveless. Her husband, Barack Obama, was the talk of a 24-hour news cycle when he donned a tan suit in 2014 for a media briefing.

— Washington Post and The Associated Press