Melania Trump donates inaugural ball gown to the Smithsonian

  • 22/10/2017
Melania Trump has donated her inaugural ball gown to the Smithsonian.
Melania Trump has donated her inaugural ball gown to the Smithsonian. Photo credit: Getty

United States First Lady Melania Trump has donated her inaugural ball gown to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The dress will become part of the museum's century-old First Ladies Collection exhibit.

On Friday (local time) she gave a three-minute speech at the museum, saying it was a "daunting task to choose an outfit that will be mesmerised". It is likely she meant to say "memorialised".

Ms Trump introduced Herve Pierre, the French-born designer behind the vanilla silk, off-the-shoulder couture dress.

"You can imagine that after [US President Donald Trump] won we were very busy with all that goes into preparing for a new administration and all the changes that we as a family would be facing," Ms Trump said.

"What I would wear to the inaugural ball was the last thing on my mind. In fact, by the time I got around to thinking about my wardrobe choice, poor Herve was only given two weeks to design and produce this couture piece."

Ms Trump's inaugural gown was initially caught up in controversy, with a number of designers refusing to dress the First Lady because of her politics.

Newshub.