She knew the dress would be huge! Melania Trump addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention wearing a white knee-length frock in Cleveland on Monday, July 18. And within an hour of her speech, the designer dress promptly sold out.
Trump, 46, chose the Margot dress by Roksanda, which features long bell sleeves in a fitted silhouette. Though the white version, which retailed for $2,190, is currently out of stock, other colors — including hot pink and jet black — are still available through online retailers. But even those shades are selling out fast, with most sizes unavailable.
The wife of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doesn’t have a stylist and “isn’t working with any designers,” a spokeswoman for Melania told Women’s Wear Daily of the choice, adding that the former model simply found it online at Net-a-Porter.
The Solvenian native isn’t the only high-profile Roksanda fan. The brand, started in 2005 by Serbian-born Roksanda Ilincic, is adored by many celebs including Kate Middleton, Zoe Saldana and Emilia Clarke.
Roksanda has already made it into the closet at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, too. First lady Michelle Obama wore the multicolored Lansdale dress, which has bright abstract designs throughout and a modest V-neckline, while departing Cambodia on March 22, 2015.
Eagle-eyed viewers of the RNC aren’t only searching for Trump’s dress; many noticed commonalities between her speech and FLOTUS’ from the 2008 Democratic National Convention. “Melania must’ve liked Michelle Obama’s 2008 Convention speech, since she plagiarized it,” writer Jarrett Hill tweeted along with a highlighted sentence. He followed it up shortly afterwards with another tweet. “CORRECTION: Melania stole a whole graph from Michelle’s speech.”
The section in question concerned being raised with solid values, and while Trump’s address was not taken word for word, the theme and many of the phrases had a familiar ring. “My parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect,” the mother of Barron, 10, declared.
Obama’s nearly identical paragraph began, “Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect.”
One sentence later, Trump’s speech appeared to have lifted another line. “We want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them,” she told the delegates.
Obama’s 2008 speech: “We want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Donald Trump’s campaign commented on the two speeches on Tuesday, July 19. “In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success,” Jason Miller, senior communications advisor, said in a statement on the campaign’s website.