Luxury Sales down Under Trump

Despite the unabashed opulence of the first family, according to a recent story by Business of Fashion, there has been a marked decline in the sale of luxury goods during the first year of the Trump presidency.

“The President and his family’s taste for the excessive — from gold drapes in the Oval Office to First Lady Melania Trump’s flounce-heavy garments — is, intentionally or not, reflected on the runway…” However, the “Trump presidency has ushered in a quiet period for luxury goods consumption in the US, with the market projected to widen just 2 percent in 2017, compared with 6 percent in both Europe and Asia.”

So why, precisely, is spending down? Well, for starters, “more than 800,000 fewer tourists visited the US in the first half of 2017,” which was a three percent drop from the year before, a dip the article attributes to both a strong dollar and “perhaps… to the administration’s extremist policies.”

It also appears that Melania’s wardrobe isn’t impacting sales in the way that past FLOTUS’ have. The story notes that she’s been “critiqued” for gardening (re: flexing) in a $1,380 Balmain shirt and that a Calvin Klein shirt she was spotted in is boasting a dismal 13 percent sell-through rate.

And while Trump’s proposed tax plan could, in theory, juice the spending habits of the nation’s wealthiest individuals (who would have even more money if it passes), that corporate rate hasn’t been slashed just yet.

It’s hard out there for an aspiring fascist regime.

You can read more about it at Business of Fashion.

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