President Trump and his family were subjected to dozens of digital hoaxes during 2017. As 2018 began, that trend showed no sign of reversing itself when a set of images appeared to compare the patterns on Melania Trump's New Year's dress with an apparently identical shower curtain:
The photograph of Melania Trump is real. It was taken on 31 December 2017 as she and President Donald Trump arrived at a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. Several photographs are are available via Getty Images.
The image of the shower curtain, however, was manipulated to look similar to the First Lady's dress. The original image was taken by Allie Boss in 2016. Although the original picture no longer appears on her Instagram feed, she was credited on several interior design blogs and her web site features similar images of this bathroom.
A comparison of the doctored curtains (left) and the genuine image (right) is visible below:
The edited image may have been intended as a commentary on the dress rather than an actual attempt to hook in credulous readers, but however it was intended, the First Lady did not re-purpose a shower curtain as her gown. According to Glamour magazine, she was wearing a designer dress worth thousands of dollars:
The pale-pink Emery dress, from the brand's Pre-Fall 2017 collection, is covered in paillettes from its high neck to the mid-calf hem. Clusters of embroidered flowers are scattered throughout the '40s-inspired silhouette. The style originally retailed for $5,500 at luxury retailer Browns, but is currently on sale for $2,201.26. (It's sold out on Erdem's website.)
Though Erdem released the dress with a periwinkle-colored belt, Melania removed it for the New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. The resulting look, then, was more '80s than its original iteration. She finished the look off with pointed-toe stilettos in a matching shade of pink.