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Why fashion designers are boycotting Melania Trump

One designer says she won’t be designing for the incoming First Lady.
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French fashion designer Sophie Theallet will not be designing for the future First Lady Melania Trump, and is calling for other designers to follow her lead.

Theallet, who has designed for First Lady Michelle Obama over the past eight years, penned an open letter that stated she could not work for the new president-elect’s wife as her brand stood against all forms of discrimination and prejudice.

“As an independent fashion brand, we consider our voice an expression of our artistic and philosophical ideas,” the missive began.

https://twitter.com/sophietheallet/status/799378444249399300/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

While the designer wrote that it’s “not wise to get involved with politics”, she stated her family-owned company “is not just about money.”

“We value our artistic freedom and always humbly seek to contribute to a more humane, conscious and ethical way to create in this world.”

The French designer, herself an immigrant to the US, closed the note by writing “I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next First Lady.”

Sophie Theallet said working with Michelle Obama has been an honour.

“The rhetoric of racism, sexism and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by. I encourage my fellow designers to do the same,” she said.

“Integrity is our only true currency.”

Harper’s Bazaar reports that the future First Lady wore an array of leading-name designers on the campaign trail, all of which were purchased – either online or from boutiques – and not provided, by designers themselves.

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