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Melania Trump, Queen Camilla and the Look of the Special Relationship

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Melania Trump, Queen Camilla and the Look of the Special Relationship

King Charles III talked eloquently of its historic importance in his speech to a joint session of Congress. President Trump praised it in his toast at the state dinner for the king’s visit to Washington. But nowhere was the special relationship between the United States and Britain more obvious than in the wardrobes of Queen Camilla and Melania Trump. They didn’t just compliment each other. They looked complementary.

Their husbands may have dressed to represent their offices, the king in his trademark Savile Row pinstripes, pocket handkerchief nattily puffed, the president in his red, white and blue. But the women, in their multiple outfits, did a lot of the subliminal work, practically shouting through their seams “hands across the ocean.” For a story that would be told mostly in photo ops and brand values — Trump brand, royal brand, fashion brands — that mattered.

In this at least the queen and the first lady seemed visibly on the same page. And while that may have been expected from Camilla, whose job is built on and defined by symbolism, it was more of a surprise from Mrs. Trump, who often seems as interested in pursuing her own agenda and protecting her privacy (all those hats and coats) as she is in supporting her husband’s or catering to the public eye.

Which may reflect not only the first couple’s well-known esteem for the royals, but also how much the royals understand and can leverage their appeal to the Trumps.

The sartorial outreach started as soon as the king and queen deplaned on Monday, Camilla in a light pink Dior coatdress — Dior being one of Mrs. Trump’s go-to designers and the brand she wore on the first day of her state visit to Britain. Dior, as it happens, is also synonymous with well-appointed luxury. Owned by the French billionaire Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH and a guest at the Trump inauguration, the label is designed by Jonathan Anderson, who is from Northern Ireland. In other words, it ticks both the diplomatic protocol box and the Trump taste box.

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And if that wasn’t bonding enough, a Cartier pin on the coatdress Camilla wore had been given to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957 on her first official visit to the United States and features a conjoined Union Jack and Stars and Stripes, a reminder of just how long this particular allyship has existed.

It set the tone for the trip.

The women also mirrored each other’s choices in shade (springlike) and sourcing (local designers) at their first meeting on Monday. The first lady wore a buttery yellow form-fitting skirt suit by Adam Lippes, the New York designer who made her inauguration coat, and the queen, a white Anna Valentine coatdress edged in floral embroidery.

Which turned out to be simply a prelude to the official military greeting the next day, when Mrs. Trump wore white (Ralph Lauren) and Camilla’s mint green look by Fiona Clare, a London couturier, was so pale it seemed white. And the similarities didn’t stop there. The outfits had similar nipped-in besuited lines and were topped with wide-brimmed straw hats that almost matched.

Even more strikingly, Camilla wore another historic piece of jewelry: the Cullinan V brooch, which features an 18.8-carat heart-shaped diamond, one of nine stones cut from the 3,000-carat Cullinan diamond originally given to Edward VII. (Two other Cullinan diamonds were incorporated into the British royal scepter and the imperial crown of Britain.) It was a souvenir from the notional vaults of Buckingham Palace, the place Mr. Trump posted he “always wanted to live,” and a canny nod to the president’s admiration for royal trimmings — and the equation of size with importance.

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Still, perhaps no images were as striking in their subtext as those unveiled Tuesday night at the first white-tie state dinner since 2007.

That was when the first lady opted for a light pink strapless gown, also by Dior, just like Camilla’s pink arrival coat. (Coincidence? Doubtful.) And it wasn’t any old pink; it was delphinium pink, delphinium being one of the king’s favorite flowers. (Notably, the dress was custom-made, like Mrs. Trump’s Ralph Lauren suit before it. Clearly, designers no longer have any reservations not only about seeing their clothes bought by the Trumps, but also about working with the Trumps.)

Camilla was also in pink, albeit more of a fuchsia shade, again by Fiona Clare, this time paired with an enormous amethyst and diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen Victoria. The king may have given the president a golden bell as a dinner gift and offered a toast that was a master class in tact, but the queen in her opulent gems gave him something else: the opportunity to feel like royalty for a night.

Fashion, it turns out, can be as effective a tool when it comes to flattery as any words.

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Lifestyle

Falling in love with an octopus, a dog, and Sally Field : Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

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Falling in love with an octopus, a dog, and Sally Field : Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

A promo image for Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me with Peter Sagal, Sally Field, and Alzo Slade

NPR and Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images and NPR


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NPR and Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images and NPR

This week, legendary actor Sally Field joins us to talk about working with an octopus, or not, and introduces the world to her dog, Dashiell Hammett. Plus, panelists Tom Bodett, Shantira Jackson, and Paula Poundstone crash a rocket on the moon.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes, the chance to be a contestant in those bonus episodes(!), and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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Accessories are the spice of personal style. Here are our favorites this month

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Accessories are the spice of personal style. Here are our favorites this month

If you buy a product linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission. See all our Coveted lists of mandatory items here.

Fendi, Ita charm, $1,150

Because our accessories deserve their own accessories. Available at fendi.com.

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Cartier, Panthère de Cartier sunglasses, $1,345

Cartier, Panthere de Cartier sunglasses. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because if the Panthère ring is the established icon, the Panthère sunglasses are the fresh upstart. Available at select Cartier boutiques and cartier.com.

JW Anderson X Diadora, Equipe trainers, $470

JW Anderson X Diadora, Equipe trainers. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because you can tell your accountant that sneakers are always a practical wardrobe investment. Available at Nordstrom and jwanderson.com or diadora.com.

Loro Piana, Vase minaudière, $2,530

Loro Piana, Vase minaudiere. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because it’s a clutch. Made. From. Glass. Available at loropiana.com.

Bottega Veneta, Baby Veneta bag, price available upon request

Bottega Veneta, Baby Veneta bag. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because you can carry around something cute and white and fluffy (without needing to feed it). Available at bottegaveneta.com.

Ferrari, Pillow bag in rosso cardinale, $3,100

Ferrari, Pillow bag. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because a Ferrari-red bag will always stop traffic. Available in September at store.ferrari.com.

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Tiffany & Co., Knot wire bangle in yellow gold, $5,900

Tiffany & Co., Knot Wire bangle Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because there’s something in the tension of a barbed wire-esque knot against a delicate wrist. Available at Tiffany & Co. stores and tiffany.com.

Panerai, Luminor Luna Rossa GMT PAM01791 watch, $11,400

Panerai, Luminor Luna Rossa GMT PAM01791 watch. Coveted selection for Image Magazine's August 2026 Issue.

Because it’s good enough — and looks good enough — for the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailing team. Available at the Panerai Boutique Beverly Hills and panerai.com.

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The new movie about Anthony Bourdain is none of the things you fear it could be

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The new movie about Anthony Bourdain is none of the things you fear it could be

The new film Tony focuses on just a splinter of Anthony Bourdain’s life — the mid-1970s summer when he was 19. Above, Antonio Banderas as Chef, and Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain.

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A couple of decades ago, I lived for a year in Singapore. The question I was asked most often was, “Do you know Anthony Bourdain?” He was an idol there. But not only there. Because his TV shows aired in almost every country, people everywhere knew him and saw him as an embodiment of what they liked about America. Bourdain was indisputably Cool, with an aura of disreputable fun, but also generous and open to different cultures. Genuinely worldly, he didn’t treat other societies’ food as weird, but as delicious, and rooted in things that matter.

We see the blossoming of that openness in Tony, an amusing new movie based on a few pages from his breakthrough book, Kitchen Confidential. Taking a splinter of Bourdain’s life — the mid-1970s summer when he was 19 — director Matt Johnson sidesteps the touch-all-the-bases sludge of a biopic. Instead, Tony captures a few telling moments in the life of a wine-dark soul who was, as Homer said of Odysseus, “the man of twists and turns.” Bourdain died by suicide in 2018.

When we first meet Bourdain — played by lanky Dominic Sessa — he’s an annoyingly brash, deeply insecure Vassar student. A would-be writer, he’s trying to B.S. a literary fellowship committee into funding a novel that’s a dialogue between Jack Kerouac and George Orwell. He calls the book a bildungsroman, the German term for the literary genre that tracks a person’s moral and emotional growth. Naturally, it’s Tony’s own growth we’ll be watching.

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When the fellowship doesn’t pan out, he heads off to a strangely un-gay Provincetown in hopes of romancing a fellow student, Nancy — that’s Emilia Jones from CODA. But he soon finds himself broke and alone. He’s rescued by a man known simply as Chef, played by Antonio Banderas, whose sly, sneaky deep performance may well win him an Oscar. Chef lets him sleep on a hammock outside his house, and when Tony lies that he knows about kitchens, hires him to work in the back of his bare-bones seafood restaurant.

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