Melania once had her own jewelry collection and skincare line, but both came to nothing after promising starts
Although Melania Trump is perhaps best known as the 45th first lady of the United States at the moment, she once was on her way to set up her own jewelry collection and skincare brand, but both met their ends in drastically different ways.
She continued her modeling career, which she had started from the age of 16 in Italy, Paris, and New York, even after marrying then-business mogul Donald Trump in 2005. Besides that, she also started dreaming about starting her own business. In 2010, she finally acted on her ideas.
She launched a QVC jewelry line, with pieces priced from $30 to $200, and which reportedly sold out its first production in 45 minutes. The collection comprised gem-encrusted bracelets, watches, and necklaces. The New York Times described the collection as "Louis XIV by way of Atlantic City."
In an interview on Fox Business at the time, she said that the inspiration behind the jewelry designs was to style them after one of her three homes - located in Palm Beach, New York City, Paris. "I’m not done because I have a lot of ideas," she said. "And I love when an idea comes to life."
Her jewelry line met a pretty straightforward fate. QVC eventually stopped selling it despite the fact that it sold relatively well. One can still find some jewelry pieces floating around Craigslist and eBay.
In January 2017, Melania received a lot of backlash when an official White House web page mentioned her line of jewelry products sold through QVC. The website was forced to remove the QVC reference after a Washington Post article reported that that the White House mentioning her “branded retail goods is unusual."
Shortly after launching her jewelry line, she ventured into skincare and came up with a line of facial lotions, exfoliators and cleansers laced with caviar, which was apparently imported from the south of France, under the brand Melania Beauty. "Through intense collaboration with Melania’s research laboratory, it was discovered that the secret to anti-aging can be explained in three distinct parts. This is known as the aging pyramid," the now-defunct website for the skincare brand said at the time.
The pyramid in question was made up of three phrases - Loss of nutrients, extrinsic stress, lack of receptivity. No other information was provided.
With the vision that the skincare brand would be a huge success, Melania promoted the brand in every way possible. In 2013, Melania appeared on her husband's show, 'Celebrity Apprentice' to explain the products to Dennis Rodman, Trace Adkins, and Lil John. Later, Trump famously fired Rodman for misspelling Melania’s name on a poster.
In addition, she also appeared on shows like 'The View,' and 'Good Morning America' to promote the brand. As her social media managers touted the line on Twitter and Facebook, she revealed that she applied her own beauty products on her face and even applies them to her son, Barron Trump.
In 2012, mother-of-one signed a deal with Indianapolis-based New Sunshine LLC, a holding company for a variety of branded skincare products, which also holds contracts for bronzers with both JWoww of 'Jersey Shore' fame and the Kardashians. Everything was set in place till there was a big fallout between the two businessmen who owned New Sunshine - John Menard, Jr. and Stephen Hilbert, Racked reported.
Amid their own internal dispute, Menard sued Melania in an attempt to void her contract, claiming Hilbert didn’t have the authority to sign it without his approval. As a result, Melania's skincare brand crashed and burned just months after its launch.
In 2013, Melania testified in court that New Sunshine had not honored their contract.
"I got a lot of bad responses back from my fans that they are trying to buy the skincare line, and it is not available," Melania said. "And they were saying I should fire my team… this is not how business is done, and they were blaming me. They were blaming my brand, and I had nothing to do with it. I was pushing it… [and] the product was nowhere to be found."
Her anger and anguish were apparent. "The damage was done," she said. "I promoted all around the world. The product was on the national TV all around the world, all the magazines and [the product] was nowhere to be found… The damage to the brand was done."
Both parties reached a deal for an undisclosed sum. A year later, Melania sued New Sunshine for $50 million - the amount she claimed she could have made had the launch of her skincare line had properly happened. She settled out of court.
Although Melania is currently focused on helping her husband get reelected, there is a possibility for her to get back into designing new jewelry pieces and launching a new line business when she is no longer the first lady. "I studied design so I have many, many ideas for home, for clothing,” she said in the Fox Business interview. “I love beauty and fashion, so we will see in the future.”