Melania Trump: How the First Lady lets her fashion do the talking

The reviews are in and Melania Trump has been given an overwhelming thumbs up from fashionistas for her early outfit choices as First Lady.

Such was the fervour over the dress the Slovenian former model chose for her husband's presidential inauguration in January that its designer Herve Pierre was inundated with phone calls.

"I had no idea what the consequences would be," the French-born US citizen told Harper's Bazaar. "My phone went completely ballistic with interview requests. I had investors and bankers in Dubai calling. People opened fake Instagram accounts under my name. Even Target called to say, 'We are so excited you are doing a line for us.' I'm like, 'Well, I had no idea I was doing one.'"

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He added: "The attention is something I'm not used to."

Melania, 46, knew exactly what she wanted when she came to speak to him about her inauguration dress, continued the designer.

"She wanted the small band sleeves of her décolleté-baring dress to form a straight line from shoulder to shoulder. He pressed for a curvier outline but ultimately changed his mind. She also envisioned a slender white ribbon encircling her waist. But it was her tone that struck Pierre the most, exemplifying her forthright, can-do attitude.

But it was her tone that struck Pierre the most, exemplifying her forthright, can-do attitude. "She was very specific about the neckline, about all the lines being parallel... Her next four years as first lady are going to be like this gown - straight to the point," he said.

And several months into her husband's term as president, Pierre's calculation that Melania purposefully intertwines her appearance and persona appears to have been spot on. Both before and after Donald Trump's election to the highest office in the country, the "sultry enigma of Trumpworld", as the New York Times dubs Melania, chose to "let her outfits do that talking."

Click through to the next page to see Melania's dresses.