Have you seen photos of Melania Trump at the state dinner? Melania Trump arrived at the state dinner at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, September 17, wearing the most blazing yellow Carolina Herrera dress I’ve ever laid my eyes upon. I will readily admit I was half-zoned out on my phone over lunch break when BAM – there she was, looking like she’d nicked the sun itself and turned it into evening wear.
My first thought? Good on her. My second thought? Crikey, that’s bold.
The whole internet’s gone barmy over this frock. People are either loving it or absolutely slagging it off. There’s no middle ground with this one, is there?
The Dress Everyone’s Banging On About
So here’s what happened. The Melania Trump yellow dress was this off-the-shoulder Carolina Herrera number with what looked like a pink or purple belt (people can’t even agree on the colour, which is hilarious).
She accessorised it with some proper fancy jewellery and walked into that royal do like she owned the place.
I mean, I’ve been to far more than my fair share of posh events. Not exactly like dining with King Charles, mind you, but still. Usually, it’s everyone playing it safe with navy blues and boring blacks. Safe choices. Predictable choices. But not Melania. She rolled up, looking like a beam of sunshine.
The comparison is making the rounds on social media. Someone said she resembled the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George. I laughed aloud when I read that tweet. Mean? Maybe. Funny? Absolutely.
Why Everyone’s Having a Proper Meltdown
Right, so fashion at royal events has always been about one thing: do not upstage the hosts. Play it classy, stir in some understatedness, and play second fiddle like a well-behaved wallflower. That’s the unwritten rule.
Melania clearly binned that rulebook.
And you know what? I think she was absolutely right to do it. Fashion should make you feel something. It should spark conversation. And that Melania Trump yellow dress has certainly done just that. Twitter has lost its head all week. My own mum phoned me up yesterday to ask if I’d seen “that American woman’s bright yellow thing” on the news.
When your outfit gets your average British pensioner riled up enough to call her daughter, you’ve made an impact.
My Mate’s Royal Fashion Disaster Story
This whole thing is like when my friend Lucy was invited to one of those Buckingham Palace garden parties a couple of years ago. For three weeks, she agonised over what to wear. Bought five different outfits. Returned four of them. Almost had a nervous breakdown in John Lewis over whether her fascinator was “too much”.
“Not too bright,” she kept saying. “Can’t look like I’m trying too hard.”
Lucy ended up wearing beige. Lovely beige. Safe beige. Completely forgettable beige.
Meanwhile, Melania’s over here wearing sunshine and having half the world talking about her. Who’s winning that battle?
The Great Colour Debate
The best part of this whole saga? There were debates over whether the belt was pink or lavender. Proper fights, the kind where you find tempers getting hot in comment sections. We Brits will argue about anything, won’t we? Tell us a controversial dress colour and we’ll debate it out like Brexit 2.0.
But that’s what makes this brilliant. It’s got people engaged. It’s got people talking. When was the last time a dress at a state dinner caused this much fuss? I can’t remember one.
Fashion Police Gone Mad
Some fashion critics have been downright savage. One of them described it as “inappropriate for the venue”. Another said it was “attention-seeking”.
Hold on a minute. When is it a crime to look fabulous? When did wearing something that makes you feel confident become attention-seeking in a bad way?
I am in the world of marketing, and I’m going to tell you: if you want people to remember you, you don’t wear beige to a royal dinner. You wear blazing yellow Carolina Herrera, and you own every single second of it.
What This Really Means
Here’s my honest take on the whole thing. Fashion at these royal dos has been stuffy and predictable for years. Same old navy dresses. Same old “appropriate” choices. Boring as watching paint dry.
Then along comes Melania in this gorgeous, bright, completely bonkers yellow creation, and suddenly everyone’s paying attention again. She’s reminded us that fashion can be fun. It can be bold. It can make people stop scrolling and actually look up from their phones.
The Social Media Circus
Twitter’s been an absolute riot. Some people call her a “fashion icon“. Others said she looked like a walking banana. The responses have been everything from laugh-out-loud funny to downright nasty.
But here’s what I keep coming back to: she looked confident. She looked happy. She looked like someone who chose an outfit she genuinely loved, not something some stylist told her was “appropriate”. There’s something refreshing about that, isn’t there?
My Final Word
Look, fashion’s subjective. Always has been. What makes my heart sing might make you want to hide behind the sofa. But the Melania Trump yellow dress has done something remarkable. It’s got people talking about fashion again. It’s got people having opinions. It reminds us that clothes can be powerful, memorable, and, yes, even a bit controversial.
Would I wear it to meet the royals? Probably not. Do I admire someone who had the guts to do it? Absolutely.
Sometimes you need someone willing to be the brightest person in the room. Even if it means half the internet will have opinions about it afterwards. Especially if it means that, actually.
Fashion should never be boring. And whatever you think about that yellow dress, it definitely wasn’t boring.
