Did Melania Trump wear a dress to the Mount Rushmore event on July 3, 2020, that featured drawings made by young sex trafficking victims? No, that's not true: The first lady's dress features sketches by university students from a London arts school taking part in a project at the Alexander McQueen store in London. There is no connection between the students and sex trafficking.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on July 5, 2020, that read:
The media mocked First Lady Melania's dress. They said it looked like childish scribbles. Little did they know, they were the drawings of several young victims of sex trafficking who tried to explain their pain through pictures.
They mocked her raising awareness for the victims of sex trafficking.
This deserves 100,000 shares!
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Jul 6 15:13:22 2020 UTC)
The "DANCING GIRLS ASYMMETRIC MIDI DRESS" is part of the Alexander McQueen Spring 2020 collection is made of 100-percent linen and you can buy it for $3,840. It is described as:
Sleeveless, ivory linen, round-neck midi dress with an asymmetric draped skirt, featuring Dancing Girls print. Invisible zipper fastening on the center back.
The dress was "Look 10" in the Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2020 show notes:
PaperMag.com published an exclusive report on the process:
The students' dancing girl sketches were done on long white sheets during a life-drawing class led by Fashion Illustrator Julie Verhoeven at the brand's flagship store in London.
The article include a photo of the art students collaborating on the sketches:
The students were from Central Saint Martins, a public arts school in London where McQueen studied fashion. There was no mention in any of the press coverage or documents released by the fashion company suggesting the students were sex trafficking victims. In fact, their names were listed in the materials, which would be illegal under British law if they were sex victims.
Lead Stories reached out to several of the students through email and we will add their responses when received.
Despite any evidence, the idea that the first lady chose the dress as a way to send a message to QAnon believers spread on social media:
I'm going to go out on a limb here & theorize that the First Lady's dress was inspired by drawings from victims of sexual abuse and/or Satanic Ritualistic Abuse. The First Lady has a history of communicating with us through her outfits as anons well know. Children are often incapable of describing their abuse in words, so they draw. What child victims inspired the First Lady's dress & who were they victims of? Does that face in her dress look familiar? Thank you @flotus for giving a voice to the voiceless.
