Melania Trump watched her husband, Donald Trump, at last night’s presidential debate wearing a fuchsia pussy-bow blouse. Don’t laugh; that’s the name of this style of blouse with a bow tied at the neck, named after the ones frequently tied around cats’ necks. And, as we all know, cats are sometimes called pussycats. Cut out the cat part, and what do you get? A pussy bow. The style also has an interesting feminist history. Trump’s top appears to be from Gucci’s pre-Fall 2016 collection; it retails for $1,100 (Vanity Fair has reached out to the Trump campaign for confirmation).
Melania Trump probably thought she was picking a vibrant outfit for the debate. Unfortunately she failed to see the irony in wearing a style of shirt with “pussy” in the name. The Internet was quick to point it out, though.
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Or did she understand the irony completely? Some viewers took Trump’s shirt-style choice as a silent way of commenting on the audio released by The Washington Post on Friday in which her husband was caught on a hot mic telling Billy Bush, then of Access Hollywood, that, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.” The comments were referenced at last night’s debate.
It appears the denizens of the Internet were reading too much into Trump’s choice, though. Sopan Deb of CBS News tweeted, “Campaign spokeswoman says this was not intentional.”
An Illustrated History of Donald Trump’s Hair. Warning! Don’t Read Before Lunch!
In this photo from 1976, Trump shows off plans for the future Grand Hyatt on East 42nd Street to a city official. Considering the era and the man, this is a remarkably tasteful, organic-looking hairstyle. Nevertheless, the hard-charging young developer appears to be studying the older man’s pate-management techniques with an eye, as always, to the future.
The year is 1985. Trump, pictured with his first wife, Ivana, is now parting his hair from left to right, as he does to this day (to the extent that the complex superstructure that is Trump’s hair can be said to have something as straightforward as a “part”). This is believed to be the last picture in which more than three-quarters of an inch of Trump’s forehead was exposed to public view.
Mr. and first-Mrs. Trump at the 1988 U.S. Open. Note that Ivana has essentially the same hairstyle as Donald, the rightward sweep of her hair echoing her husband’s, though Ivana’s tresses are clearly attached to her forehead in a way that lends all the more mystery and intrigue to his.
Trump at a circa 1990 event with Clive Davis, Rod Stewart, and Rachel Hunter. That is not a lobotomy scar on the side of the billionaire’s head but rather a severe and deep part that suggests a “problem area” on the top and back of his scalp is being compensated for. Note that this party picture is composed as meticulously as an allegoric Renaissance painting, with Trump occupying the symbolic middle ground, in terms of possessing active follicles, between Davis and Stewart. To the right, Hunter represents hair in its unfallen, natural-ish state.
Trump and then-girlfriend Marla Maples sanctifying their love, like all devoted couples do, at a press event in 1991. Note that Trump’s “hairline” is now nearly contiguous with his eyebrows. Is this evidence of the scalp reduction he allegedly underwent in 1989, according to divorce papers filed by Ivana and recounted in the 1993 biography Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump?
Trump’s 1993 wedding to Maples, the second Mrs. Trump. Strangely, the hair on the left side of the groom’s head is a full half foot taller than on the right. This imbalance may be the result of the three or four inter-dimensional, gravity-warping vortexes clearly visible in the back of his head.
Trump bending over to share a tender moment with his son Eric in 1991. This inadvertent overhead view reveals that, claims to Swedish ancestry notwithstanding, Trump is in fact part unicorn.
Trump with the John F. Kennedy Jr. at a 1999 New York Knicks game. Observe how the businessman’s hair breaks over his collar like a viscous, bird-killing oil slick. Why is J.F.K. Jr. the one wearing a hat?
Trump at an outdoor event in around 2000, after ordering his stylist to color his hair and eyebrows a then-chic shade known as “Cigar-Stained-Teeth Blonde.” Tellingly, the wind affects but a single quadrant of Trump’s hair, as if the rest were bolted down like a storm cellar door.
In this 2002 photograph, Trump has changed his hair color to “Burnt-Cheetos Auburn.” As well, the conventional hairsprays and salon products of years past appear to have given way to rubber cement and snot.
Unlike her husband, the third Mrs. Trump, Melania Knauss, is comfortable enough in her femininity to show off her normal but comparatively high hairline in this 2002 photo.
Trump, shown here, in 2003, with Apprentice producer Mark Burnett, experiments with white roots and light filaments wrapped around the back of his head. Historians call this developer’s “middle-aged club kid” phase.
Trump at the 2004 Emmys. At this point, we’re just fucking with your stomach. Had lunch yet?
Trump with son Donald Trump Jr. at a 2006 press event where they appear to be performers in a horrifying tableau vivant of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Skillful lighting reveals the father’s signature side-and-back comb-over (and over)—The Trump Crosshatch™—while the son’s mane has been styled to look genuinely, biologically luxuriant.
Trump, at a 2013 red-carpet event for All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, in disguise as former U.S. representative Dick Gephardt, possibly to avoid good-writing scolds who consider “All-Star Celebrity” redundant, and fact checkers who might deem the claim debatable.
Trump at Trump Tower this past June, announcing his candidacy for president. Cannily, he appears to be courting the women’s vote by having combed the hair on the left side of his head into the shape of a vagina.