Lifestyle
Is Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress Really on eBay?
Is it or isn’t it?
On Tuesday, a listing surfaced on eBay purportedly offering Melania Trump’s wedding dress for sale. You know, the one designed by John Galliano for Dior couture, reportedly costing more than $100,000, worn by the first lady at her Mar-a-Lago wedding to Donald J. Trump and featured on her only Vogue cover, in February 2005.
The dress, priced at $45,000 by a woman who identifies herself as Svjabc1 and is in Massapequa, N.Y., is described as being “made of duchesse satin” with “a figure-hugging silhouette, a 90-meter voluminous skirt and embroidered with 1,500 Swarovski diamonds.” According to the listing, the seller bought the dress from Mrs. Trump for her own wedding in 2010 for $70,000. It does not come with any proof of authenticity, other than 21 photos highlighting its billowing train and diamanté embroidery, which are juxtaposed against the famous Vogue cover, presumably to show the similarity.
The magazine story, which described the soon-to-be Mrs. Trump’s search for her gown during the couture shows, also contained many details about the dress that made news at the time and have resurfaced with the sale, including the fact that it weighed 60 pounds and took 550 hours to complete.
Almost immediately the news was embraced by numerous outlets, proclaiming, “You Can Buy Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress” (The Spectator) and “How Much Would You Pay for Melania Trump’s Wedding Dress?” (The Cut). As of Wednesday morning, the listing was being “watched” by 224 people.
Leaving aside the fact that the seller acknowledges on the listing that she made “a few changes” to the gown — more satin, more embroidery and straps — which means it no longer looks identical to Mrs. Trump’s gown, there’s another problem. The designer Hervé Pierre, Mrs. Trump’s longtime stylist (he made her inauguration gowns in 2017 and 2025), said of her wedding dress, “I stored the gown myself in Palm Beach.”
And then added, “Two years ago.”
Neither the first lady’s office nor the seller responded to multiple requests for comment. Dior likewise declined to comment on the dress, noting that it was a policy not to discuss interactions with couture clients. A spokesman pointed out, however, that a couture gown always comes with a label and a number. To authenticate it, he said, they would need to see the dress in person.
Mr. Pierre said that the wedding dress he stored in Florida for Mrs. Trump had a label on the side as well as a ribbon with a reference number. In the multiple close-ups of the gown for sale on eBay, none shows a label.
Alexis Hoopes, the vice president for fashion at eBay, said the company was founded on trust and referred to its widespread Authenticity Guarantee policy, which covers watches, handbags, jewelry, streetwear, sneakers and trading cards, though she acknowledged that the guarantee program did not extend to “the item in question.”
Still, the decision to use eBay to sell a historic garment, albeit one that has been altered, is a peculiar one, said Cameron Silver, the owner of the Los Angeles vintage boutique Decades.
“I would always suggest an auction house for historic garments with provenance,” he said. Companies like Christie’s have auctioned clothes from figures like Audrey Hepburn, while Julien’s in London sold Princess Diana’s gowns, and Kerry Taylor Auctions handled the clothes of Elizabeth Taylor, Leslie Caron and Jerry Hall.
The listing first came to attention through Liana Satenstein’s Substack, Neverworns. Ms. Satenstein said she became aware of it through a friend, Patricia Torvalds, who was looking for a vintage wedding dress and had been corresponding with the seller. According to Ms. Torvalds, the seller, who has been on eBay since November 2021, has moved 119 items and has a positive feedback rating of 98.8 percent, said she had sourced the dress through another friend, who claimed to know Mrs. Trump.
According to eBay messages between the two women that were seen by The New York Times, the seller said the label was taken out when the dress was altered by the seamstress and never replaced. (She also has a number of other items listed on eBay, including a diamond wedding band made as a replica of the one Mrs. Trump wore on her wedding day.) She said that she was getting a lot of messages from people curious about the gown and its origins. Nevertheless, the listing is still up.
Where the dress may actually have come from is unclear. Often, when a well-known figure gets married in a public way and the gown is featured in a magazine like Vogue, it will be copied by any number of bridal designers and offered for sale. The original dress was inspired by a look from Mr. Galliano’s “Empress Sissi” Dior couture collection in February 2004, so it is possible that a sample was sold.
In any case, the willingness of many people to accept the idea that the dress could have belonged to Mrs. Trump and that she was willing to sell her wedding gown — a garment it is generally accepted most people keep forever — is a reflection of the complicated feelings people have about the Trumps, their relationship and the precedents they have set in monetizing their lives.
Indeed, Mrs. Trump herself sells jewelry, ornaments and her own memecoin via her website. In 2022, in a break with first lady precedent, she auctioned off another historic piece of clothing from her wardrobe rather than donating it to the National Archive: the white hat she wore in 2018 during the first Trump administration on the occasion of the French state visit.
Of course, at the time of that sale, the first lady made sure to sign the hat just in case there was any doubt where it had come from.
Lifestyle
Trump’s name must come off of the Kennedy Center, judge rules
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
A federal judge has blocked President Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, saying that the Washington, D.C. arts complex was named for the late president John F. Kennedy. In a ruling on Friday, the judge also temporarily blocked the administration from closing the Kennedy Center for a planned two-year renovation that was slated to begin in July.
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling that: “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
A Kennedy Center spokesperson told NPR in an email Friday afternoon that it will appeal the decision. Roma Daravi, vice president of public relations for the complex, wrote: “We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges. With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
NPR has requested comment from the White House, but did not receive an immediate reply.

As part of his ruling, Judge Cooper ordered that all signage and online materials referring to the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” the “Trump Kennedy Center,” or anything similar must be removed within 14 days.

The judge also blocked, for now, plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovations. Trump and the center’s current voting board members – all of whom were selected by the president, who also became chairman of the center last year – had planned to start the renovations in early July, just after the 250th anniversary celebrations. In his 94-page ruling, Judge Cooper called the renovation plans “murky,” and wrote: “None of the board members had sufficient information in advance of the March 16 meeting to make a well-considered decision to close the center.” The center has been winding down its programming and has already dismissed most of its programming staff.
Referring to a Truth Social post written by President Trump in February, the judge also wrote: “There was no ‘one year review of the Trump Kennedy Center, that has taken place with Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants, deciding between’ complete and partial closure, as President Trump claimed.”
Cooper’s ruling resulted from a lawsuit filed in March by Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board whose voting rights there were stripped last year.
The ruling does not prevent the Kennedy Center’s board from a future closure, but the judge said that it should do so only after the board has “sufficient information to make a considered, independent decision, taking account of its obligation to both maintain and operate a premiere arts venue and its solemn duty to memorialize a fallen President.”
Lifestyle
L.A. Affairs: I went on 53 first dates in one summer. Here’s a look at my spreadsheet
Three years after my second divorce, with the help of a dating app, I went on 53 first dates in one summer. Fifty-three times, I put on my first-date uniform (nice but not trying too hard), flat-ironed my hair and texted my date itinerary to my friend Karen to make it easier for the FBI to track my whereabouts just in case this was the internet date that finally went wrong.
I had a system. The system involved a spreadsheet. I kept track of what I wore and what stories we shared to avoid repeating myself in case there was a second or third date. There were exploratory follow-up dates, but it usually only took one to know.
The coffees and lunches and dinners of that season flicker in my mind like a rom-com video montage. There were some average dates, plenty of nice-guy, zero-chemistry dates, but a few stand out.
Here are the notables.
There was the extremely tall, minor league baseball player I met at BJ’s in Burbank. He said no more than four words to me the entire meal, but managed to chat up our waitress. I believe he walked me to my car and went back for her number.
The quiet and irritable TV editor I met at Guelaguetza on Olympic Boulevard. We ordered the chicken mole and chapulines. During the meal, he had a panic attack and excused himself to call his therapist. He actually told me this.
The experimental-video director with the white faux hawk I met at Go Get Em Tiger in East Hollywood. He spent the date in an hourlong monologue about his ex-wife Julia, stopping only to show me many, many photos of Julia.
A young man, originally from Phoenix, asked to meet at Soot Bull Jip on 8th Street. A struggling writer-actor-production assistant, he confided that he had looked up my name on Internet Movie Database and noticed that I was a producer. He then proceeded to pitch me an animated children’s show about singing giraffes. He also asked for a ride to Vons. I declined both.
The screenwriter I met at République who, based on his startling non-resemblance to his photo, had obviously posted a picture of someone else on his profile. He brought me three mixed CDs of music based on what he “knew” I would like. It was all Radiohead and Elliott Smith. I adjusted my dating profile because I was apparently coming off as depressed.
There was the nervous and uptight English tutor, with a script in turn-around and a famous roommate, that I met at a Starbucks in Koreatown. This guy corrected my grammar within the first five minutes of our introduction. Then, he proceeded to inform me that rather than be put off by this, I should be grateful for the new information so I could fix my error and not appear to be uneducated.
The trendy, bearded sports photographer I met for a late-night dinner at Fred 62 in Los Feliz. I had high hopes for this guy, and we made plans for a second date. But then things started unraveling once we realized I had already dated his younger brother.
There was also the suave (Hand kiss? Really?) and extremely tan French tennis pro I crossed La Cienega Boulevard for and met for lunch at Thai Vegan in Santa Monica. He was on a nonstop series of calls on his cellphone during the entire meal and then asked for a second date. I said, “Non, merci.”
When describing these guys to Karen, I used their identifying traits to label them. (Stalker Creep. Dude Looks Like a Lady. Mom Jeans Guy.) Like an FNG in Vietnam, it was better not to learn their names.
Due to a story he had shared with me via email, date No. 53 was identified as Naked Drummer. I tried to reserve judgment. Before Naked Drummer came to meet me for our first date, he called at the last minute and said the following:
“I want to recap. I just turned 30. I am currently living with my mother. I play guitar in an alternative folk band. I have a semi-crappy temp job at Disney with no benefits. I drive a green ’97 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan that smells like weed. If you would like to change your mind about this whole dinner thing, now is your chance.” He described himself as tall, dark and tall.
For some reason, I broke many of my first date “safety rules” with Naked Drummer. I gave him my address. I let him pick me up. When he came to get me, I let him into my apartment. We went for dinner at Noshi Sushi on Beverly Boulevard. None of that is prudent behavior, and I do not recommend any of it except the chu toro.
Naked Drummer was a funny, smart, nice Jewish boy who had been touring in bands in that Grand Voyager since college graduation. On the first date, we bonded over takuwan rolls and our histories as teenage goths. My goth uniform included black Maybelline eyeliner I used a lighter to heat the tip with before application. His goth uniform included an olive-green trench coat he borrowed from his mom. We were a match made in Joy Division heaven. He confided he was an Insane Clown Posse Juggalo, I intimated I was in the Kiss Army. (We were both lying about those last two.)
Reader, I married him.
The author is a former writer, director and producer for television. She and Mr. Rosenberg live in South Pasadena. She’s on Instagram: @smacksy.
L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.
Lifestyle
Poppy Liu wants to remind you how revolutionary I Love Boosters is : Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
I Love Boosters starts like a fun heist movie. There’s a gang of cool ladies from the Bay Area who steal clothes from high-end designers and sell them at a steep discount to their friends and neighbors. But I Love Boosters is also a Boots Riley movie. The film is surreal and bombastic, branching out in a thousand directions and traversing a dozen genres. So it can’t really stay a heist movie.
Poppy Liu drives that change more than pretty much any other character in the film. She plays Jianhu, a garment worker in China who joins the gang and brings with her a bonkers new wrinkle to the story. It’s a role Poppy was made for. She’s made her career playing confident, somewhat unhinged weirdos. She was cast in a lead role in the 2019 sitcom Sunnyside, had other parts on Better Call Saul, The After Party, and Hacks.
Liu joins us to talk about starring in I Love Boosters and the message that she hopes audiences take away from the film. She also chats with us about her upbringing in Minnesota, how she got into comedy acting, her role on Hacks, and much more.
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