What Dress Did Melania Trump Wear Last Night
The claim: Dress worn by Melania Trump at Mount Rushmore speech featured drawings by victims of child sex abuse.
While the first lady's wardrobe choices are often met with criticism, social media users praised Melania Trump following one of her most recent appearances, claiming her dress was designed by victims of child sex abuse.
The first lady joined President Donald Trump in Keystone, South Dakota, on the eve of Independence Day at Mount Rushmore, where the president delivered remarks and condemned protesters for attacking monuments.
Shortly after the rally, a post about her white-and-black dress made its way to social media platforms.
It was mocked by the media, according to a July 5 Facebook post by user, Mike Parr.
"They said it looked like childish scribbles. Little did they know, they were the drawings of several young victims of sex trafficking who tried to explain their pain through pictures," Parr wrote. "They mocked her raising awareness for the victims of sex trafficking. This deserves 100,000 shares!"
Parr did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
"Social media made fun of Melania's dress she wore last night. They said it looked like President Trump scribbled on it with a marker," an Instagram post shared by @networkradio.us on June 5 reads. "It is a dress designed by Alexander McQueen using sketches drawn by victims of child sexual abuse to describe their feelings. Our First Lady is incredible."
The post also appeared on Facebook, where user Candy Cannon shared a photo of the in the dress and wrote, "First Lady Melania may be silent, yet her dress is screaming out loud and clear!!! #SaveTheChildren."
U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail published a series of screenshot tweets that suggested that the president drew on the white dress with a black Sharpie marker. The marker alludes to a famous incident where Trump allegedly suggested an alternate path for Hurricane Dorian, which ravaged the Bahamas in 2019, by drawing on a map with a marker, USA TODAY reported.
Speculations behind Melania's fashion moments are not new. In 2019, Twitter users claimed that the first lady's July 4 dress was an endorsement of gay pride. During a 2018 trip to Texas to visit a migrant children's children shelter, users criticized Trump for wearing a jacket that read "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?"
Sketches on dress are from students
The dress worn by the first lady did come from Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2020 collection, however, the drawings on the dress were not created by children who had been victims of sexual abuse as posts claim.
On March 21, Alexander McQueen's official Facebook page posted that the dress features dancing girls.
"The continuous, spontaneous sketches of dancing girls by Central Saint Martins MA students, created during a life drawing class held at the Alexander McQueen educational space in London this year, is the source of these motifs," the post reads, along with a video of the dress.
Central Saint Martins is an arts and design college in London, according to its website.
Vogue reported in October 2019 that the designs on the dress were the work of an illustration class led by British fashion legend Julie Verhoeven. The result was a "continuous, spontaneous sketch of dancing girls that went on to become the foundation and spirit of the dress."
On July 5, Express reported that the design inspired by life drawings and were hand stitched onto the linen dress.
The garment is listed on the brand's website for $3,480.
Process behind the design
The Stitch School, which provided tables in the London and Paris studio for the community to stitch the dress, wrote on its site that the dress was "inspired by the work of The Stitch School which was founded to reconnect young people to the art of embroidery and encourage community making."
Sarah Burton, director of the Alexander McQueen brand, told the Stitch School that the dress was the result of a mass crafting experiment, and everyone from the press team to interns were involved in the creation.
"There's so much noise in the world this was about having a moment to think and be as a studio and all work together on something," Burton said. "It was a calm time to work together and be with our own thoughts."
Glass Magazine wrote that the dress had a "greater meaning" because every member of team contributed to the embroidery by hand, "becoming a true symbol of what the brand stands for."
"Alexander McQueen aims to nurture and contribute to the success of young designers and creatives, and this sense of community that went towards one single dress proves this," the article reads.
Was the first lady sending a secret message to QAnon believers through her clothing?
That's what a Facebook user Liz Cronkin suggested in a July 4 post to the page "The Storm Has Arrived." The page is a collection hub for social media posts that supposedly prove "QAnon." A far-right wing conspiracy theory about politicians and A-list celebrities engaging in child sex abuse with the help of the governments around the world, QAnon has found a home in the Republican Party, according to CNN.
More:Fact check: Ellen, Oprah, many others are not under house arrest for child sex trafficking
Cronkin wrote that Trump was trying to secretly communicate with QAnon followers, theorizing that the drawings on the dress were inspired by the "victims of sexual abuse and/or Satanic Ritualistic Abuse."
"The First Lady has a history of communicating with us through her outfits as anons well know. Children are often incapable of describing their abuse in words, so they draw," Cronkin wrote.
Our ruling: Partly false
Melania Trump's dress shown on the posts was designed by Alexander McQueen, however, the dress was not designed by victims of child sex abuse, but instead, students at Central Saint Martins. Research shows the dress depicts dancing girls and symbolizes community involvement, therefore we rate this claim as PARTLY FALSE.
Our fact-check sources:
- Alexander McQueen Facebook post
- Vogue, "Sarah Burton Shares The Story Behind A Special Look From The Alexander McQueen SS20 Show"
- Express, "Melania Trump cruelly mocked over £1900 Alexander McQueen dress"
- Alexander McQueen X Stitch-School
- Glass Magazine, "A Story of Community: Glass looks back at Alexander McQueen's SS20 Dancing Girls Print and Mini Bags"
- Central Saint Martins
- CNN: "Born on the dark fringes of the internet, QAnon is now infiltrating mainstream American life and politics"
- The Daily Mail: "'Will somebody please take the sharpie away from him!' Social media mocks Melania's unusual $2,400 Alexander McQueen as she steps out at Mount Rushmore event"
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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/08/fact-check-melania-trumps-dress-didnt-feature-victims-drawings/5396784002/
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