How much significance can an off-the-rack coral maternity dress hold? Turns out a lot, if it’s at the center of a style controversy.
In a Father’s Day special episode of “Storytime with the Second Lady,” released June 21, Usha Vance donned a fitted coral maternity dress with a cowl neckline that highlighted her bump. The second lady is expecting her fourth child, a boy due in July, with Vice President JD Vance.
The dress would have largely gone unnoticed had it not been for a New York Times article titled “The Politics and Power of the Pregnancy Image,” in which chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote that the pregnant bellies of MAGA women, including Vance, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, have taken center stage.
“Indeed, ever since Vance, Leavitt and Miller revealed their pregnancies, their public appearances have showcased their growing stomachs,” Friendman wrote. “Together, the women have created a notably consistent, and somewhat paradigm-shifting, picture of the White House’s family and fertility platform.”
Friedman added Vance’s job as second lady “is also to represent and humanize the vice president,” and “By spotlighting her pregnancy, she is doing exactly that.”
Vance fired back, writing she did not realize her $8.75 coral maternity dress held so much “political significance.”
“Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks!” Vance wrote in a June 24 post on X.
“In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and a good story with your kids on Storytime with the Second Lady,” she added.
She followed up with another post sharing the receipt of her dress purchase. The outfit, which originally retailed for $44.99, was marked down to $12.49 while an additional coupon brought down the dress’ price to $8.75. The dress is no longer available on Old Navy’s website and appears to have been sold out.
New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander, in an email to USA TODAY June 25, said: “We’re glad the Second Lady had a chance to read The Times’s reporting on fashion and pregnancy, which presented a fair and illuminating analysis of women in the Trump administration and their ownership of motherhood and image.”
Earlier, in an interview with NBC’s Kate Snow on “Today,” Vance said compared to her last pregnancy, she has had to “dress up a lot more” this time around.
“I enjoyed my last pregnancy — there were a lot of sweatpants,” Vance said.
Usha and JD Vance‘s fourth child will be the first born to a sitting vice president in modern American history. The couple has three young children already: Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, and Mirabel, 4.
JD Vance, in an interview with USA TODAY earlier this month, said the couple has yet to pick a name for their fourth child.
“We have not decided on the name yet,” the vice president, 41, told USA TODAY’s Francesca Chambers.
Vance said he and his wife chose the names of all three children “very late” and did not settle on names for two of the three until the children were born.
“Usha and I have very different perspectives on what to name kids, and so we’re always kind of debating names as we go into the delivery room and then once we see the baby, that’s usually when we decide,” he said. “So no baby name yet. We know it’s a boy, that’s all we know, and I’m sure we’ll name the child by the time we have to put a name on a birth certificate, just like we always do.”
This story was updated with a new gallery and more information.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
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