The Language of Fashion: A Semiotic and Sociocultural Study of the Trump Women's Inauguration Attire(2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.9.3.P1.23Keywords:
Fashion, semiotics, Sociology of Fashion, Cultural Capital, Authoritarian Chic.Abstract
Fashion works as a complex semiotic organization, especially during political spectacles where visual appearance often strengthens ideological messaging. This research explores the fashion adoptions of main female characters at Donald Trump's 2025 presidential inauguration exactly Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Usha Vance, and Tiffany Trump. Moving from semiotics, sociology of fashion, and cultural theory, this paper claims that their tailored decisions work as designed visual rhetoric calculated to express authority, political alignment, class distinction, and gender performance.
This study uses qualitative visual analysis of high-resolution media images and fashion reporting to decode the symbolic meanings embedded in the garments of prominent women affiliated with Trumpism, focusing on color palettes, accessories, silhouettes, and designer affiliations. It observes a shift from the pastel-toned, idealized "First Lady" aesthetic of 2017 toward a more militarized, rigid, and elite-coded style referred to as "authoritarian chic" by 2025. This stylistic transition mirrors broader ideological shifts during Donald Trump’s second presidential term, particularly those involving gender traditionalism, nationalist rhetoric, and the visual construction of class-based separation. The research aims at investigating how fashion works not as plain decoration, but as a potent device of political communication that transfers power, ideology, and identity. It's main questions are: 1-how fashion choices reveal or strengthen political messages, 2-how femininity is fashioned through conservative visual culture, and 3- how clothing may serve to show both ideological loyalty and authority . The research hypothesizes that:1-these fashion changes align with increased nationalist themes, support traditional gender roles while offering a controlled form of public authority, 2-deliberately use visual markers of uniqueness to establish elite distinction. Finally, 3- it discusses that fashion in such context is a curated political language that exposes the deeper cultural and ideological undercurrents of modern American conservatism.
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