It wasn’t solely Nikki Haley’s promise after the New Hampshire Republican main that she would proceed to combat that received underneath Donald J. Trump’s pores and skin, apparently; it was her garments, too.
Or reasonably her “fancy gown that most likely wasn’t so fancy,” because the former president put it. And although he’s usually vulnerable to exaggeration, within the case of the gown Ms. Haley wore Tuesday night, Mr. Trump’s description turned out to be just about proper.
The gown was, certainly, fancy-but-not-so-fancy. It seems to be from the model Teri Jon, a New York-based line that Ms. Haley has lengthy favored. She wore Teri Jon when she was ambassador to the U.N. in 2018, on Fox News in 2022, and to her daughter’s wedding in 2023.
Based by a lady named Rickie Freeman, Teri Jon is carried by shops across the nation, like Saks and Neiman Marcus. The gown Ms. Haley wore in New Hampshire retails for $580, which is expensive-but-not-too-expensive. Knee-length, in blue floral jacquard with a barely A-line skirt and fluted sleeves, the reduce vaguely resembles a type of Nineteen Fifties hostess model; it seems conservative however not too conservative.
Precisely the type of model, for instance, that may attraction to Republicans with a yen for the outdated days. Teri Jon describes their clients as “Professionals. Moms. Daughters. World vacationers. Dwelling-makers. Sisters. Partiers.”
And whereas Mr. Trump clearly meant his sartorial criticism to be a barb at Ms. Haley — maybe an implication that he is aware of fancy (or his spouse, Melania, does) and his rival doesn’t — the gown was in truth a fairly efficient illustration of how Ms. Haley has used her picture as a part of her marketing campaign technique.
That begins with the truth that she even wore a gown to make her speech, reasonably than, say, the usual feminine politician’s trouser swimsuit and even the American flag Ralph Lauren sweater she had been sporting on the street.
Gender, particularly as expressed in clothes, has been part of Ms. Haley’s political platform since she introduced her candidacy for president, whether or not it’s her excessive heels, which she has been referencing in stump speeches for years (and which she name-checked within the third Republican main debate) or her penchant for quoting so-called Thatcherisms (from the conservative former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher) like “‘If you’d like one thing mentioned, ask a person. If you’d like one thing carried out, ask a lady.’”
And within the semiology of clothes, a gown usually suggests “girl.” Mr. Trump of all individuals ought to perceive the unconscious messaging. He’s, in any case, the person who, as president, introduced that the ladies in his administration ought to “gown like girls.”
Ms. Haley merely turned the suggestion to her personal ends. That means extra wardrobe salvos to come back, because the race strikes on to South Carolina.
