As President Trump reaches the one-month milestone of his presidency, it is hard to ignore the way his time in office has impacted the fashion industry.
In the past, the only fashion attention the first family received was in the form of a highlight of the first lady’s enviable wardrobe.
Jackie Kennedy has long been recognized as one of the chicest women to hold that honorable position. Even Michelle Obama helped discover designers, whose designs often sold out after she was photographed wearing one of their ensembles.
Given the fact that both President Trump and his daughter Ivanka established clothing brands before Trump began his race for the presidency, his indictment as the 45th president should have bolstered their personal brands and strengthened relationships with existing ones.
However, unlike past first families, fashion brands are running away from the Trumps instead of rushing to work with them. Since announcing his run, Trump’s interaction with the fashion industry has consisted almost entirely of Twitter wars and boycotts.
One of the first major debacles came just a few days after Trump’s official bid announcement in the summer of 2015. After Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, Macy’s immediately stopped selling Donald Trump’s line of shirts, neckties, watches and cufflinks.
As he often does, Trump took to Twitter to express his displeasure, tweeting: “Those who believe in tight border security, stopping illegal immigration and SMART trade deals w/ other countries should boycott @Macys.”
This trouble did not stop there. Following the release of the 2005 video of Donald bragging about his sexual advances on women, in which he made the infamous “grab them by the p—y” comment, the #grabyourwallet campaign took social media by storm.
The boycott targeted all things Trump by circulating a Google Doc that detailed all of the companies with ties to the family and their business ventures. The list started with a few retailers such as Zappos, TJ Maxx and Amazon, but has since grown to include 134 companies.
Most recently, the Trumps have been caught in a firestorm with major companies that have dropped Ivanka’s clothing and accessories line. First it was Nordstrom, then Neiman Marcus, followed by Belk, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.
While all of the companies cited the removal of the brand as simply switching up brands or lacking sales, skeptics say the timing of this–right after the controversial Muslim ban passed by Ivanka’s father–is suspicious.
Trump has fired back at these companies, recently tweeting, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. Terrible!”
These incidents are just a few of many less than positive interactions the Trump family has had with the fashion industry since joining the campaign trail. Considering all of this and more has materialized in the mere year and a half since Trump announced his presidency, more Twitter wars and altercations are likely to continue over the next four years.
