The Trump Women and their Fashion Mishaps

The Trump Women and their Fashion Mishaps - Part Three

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12/08/2025 01:26

Subject: The Trump Women and their Fashion Mishaps - Part Three

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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:I wonder how many coats she had as a teenager in Community Slovenia. I’d guess one.

She probably had an italian tailored wool coat in a pastel color from United colors of Benetton bought in Italy or Austria. Or maybe one of the coats made in Yugoslavia - they were top notch quality at the time and especially Slovenia produced excellent woolmark quality knits.
Yes, you’d have just one coat, nothing wrong with that.

I didn't take the comment you were replying to as implying there was anything wrong with her having one coat. I took it to mean she grew up in a communist country and likely wouldn't have had the wardrobe of an American teen. I know her parents were educated and had good jobs but they were still living under communism.

Would she have even had access to United Colors of Benetton? I don't know much about communist Slovenia but I imagine it was like Russia and there was a ban on imported goods.

I was a bit of a Sovietologist decades ago when that was a thing. Yugoslavia had access to more western goods because it wasn’t behind the iron curtain but I’d be surprised if it was the same as living in Austria or Italy. In general communist countries tend to have more closed economies because they are state controlled with different attitudes toward import/export. Anyway, it would be super interesting to have articles about that in particular — it’s sort of crazy we’ve had this First Lady for 5 years and know so little about her background and childhood. If anyone reading this is from Yugoslavia. I’d love to know about fashion options in 1980s Yugoslavia!!!

I'm from there, Melania's age and similar background (although my parents were not communists) and that was my comment about a Benetton coat.
With her being from a well situated family and only 2 hrs drive from Trieste, Italy, a very popular town for shopping at the time, I can pretty accurately say that she was dressed as good as an American teenager, if not better. Slovenia was officially the most developed part of Yugoslavia, their women were stylish and weekend trips to Austria or Italy were common. Also, the garment industry in Yugoslavia was pretty solid, with Slovenia having some amazing brands and covering production for Adidas (70's and 80's Adidas made in Slovenia or Yugoslavia are currently gold in vintage market, especially in Japan). I think Melania's always been deliberate about how she dresses, and that most probably started in her childhood in former Yugoslavia.

Very cool, thanks for sharing! I actually didn't realize until this thread that Yugoslavia wasn't part of the USSR*, so I expected her childhood to be much more spartan than what the GQ profile and your post describe.

*I am sure I learned that in European history in tenth grade but I was born after the Berlin Wall fell so it's not like something I would remember and to be perfectly honest I don't think about Yugoslavia frequently lol.

God that poster made me feel old. I for one remember when the Olympics were in Sarajevo. Yugoslavia wasn’t just part of the USSR—it wasn’t even part of the Warsaw bloc. It was sort of “softly” in the Soviet influence sphere because Tito had basically a deal with the soviets. I think Yugoslavia actually had a lot of spy activity and smuggling activity because it was one of the few entry points behind the iron Curtain. (Others were through the tunnels under Berlin or maybe Syria).