“Conservative girl” makeup recently has gone viral for all the wrong reasons: over-application, mismatched foundation, cavalier disregard for god-given brow density. But is conservative fashion similarly uninspired? And is it the same across the world as it is in the United States?
There are numerous places to turn for examples in the U.S., but you could start with Melania Trump’s 2025 White House portrait, which has all the charisma of a stock image. Or the suburban Realtor-on-a-billboard style of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Right-wing style is largely defined by perfectionistic, heavily aestheticized elements: over-symmetry, over-harmony, and edge avoidance. In the top ranks, the result is bland, frisson-free dressing.
Kathleen M. Brown, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, believes right-wing style approximates “corporate-feminine.”
“Women in corporate America have long been told to straighten their hair, hide the gray, remove any traces of facial hair, and straighten and whiten teeth,” she told HuffPost. “They have also been subject to fat-shaming. When I superficially turn my attention to what right-wing women are wearing today, I don’t see anything that new: just a variation on the corporatization of individual identity, expression, and intellect. The clothes are not the cause of these transformations, but they are the costumes and the props that support and reveal it.”
Style evolves osmotically and aesthetics are charged by cultural cross-pollination, so it makes sense that MAGA fashion is a humorless monoculture. Conservative ideology opposes pluralism and views foreign influences as contaminants that threaten a noble, racially pure identity. Among mid-ranking ideologues and right-wing press, the party line seeps into the wardrobe like a telltale stain: unmoving coifs, aggressive blondness, over glossy blowouts, tedious sheath dresses, and makeup stripped of sophistication.
