Hope Hicks May Have Been The Starter Of 'MAGA Makeup' & We Totally Missed It
Long before the internet contemplated why Karoline Leavitt's makeup should never be captured up close, before the "Mar-a-Lago" face trend was a thing, and certainly before Republican women dominated the spotlight with raccoon-eye contour and heavy foundation — not to mention a number of surgically-aided cosmetic enhancements — there was Hope Hicks. The PR advisor stood beside Donald Trump at rally after rally, with a full face of makeup and the serene confidence that comes from knowing there are no wrong answers to any questions when it comes to the MAGA movement. Indeed, when the internet finds itself talking about Hicks, it's usually about stuff like how the former Trump aide has a history of age-gap relationships, or how weird it is that both Hicks and Kristi Noem had rumored affairs with the same man. The conversation has hardly ever turned towards her looks, and there was no good reason to change that... until now.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, people are looking back at photos of Hicks from 2019, and wondering, if a bit cautiously, whether she might have been the catalyst that launched a beauty movement currently scorching through Washington and even affecting celebrities who have a "Mar-a-Lago" face in the making.
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Just consider the optics from this 2019 House Judiciary Committee interview on Capitol Hill. Look at those dark, defined brows, the heavy matte foundation, the bright lip, and the excessive blush. Even her mascara is just stopping short of running down her face due to how voluminous it is. Were we bearing witness to the birth of the MAGA makeup without knowing it?
Hicks may have contributed to the look that launched a thousand think pieces and memes
Hope Hicks landed a job at the Trump organization like how all great origin stories begin. She was a former teen model who appeared in Ralph Lauren campaigns. When she started out with the Trumps, she helped manage Ivanka's fashion line, but by 2017, Hicks was the one-woman press secretary for Trump. Through it all, her look was polished and inspired, but most importantly of all, it was consistent with the aesthetic maxim that would soon emerge in MAGA circles.
When TikToker Suzanne Lambert began making fun of Republican figures and their "Republican makeup," she was actually identifying something that had become weirdly codified. Whatever you wish to call it — and there are many names for it: Mar-a-Lago face, MAGA makeup or Republican makeup, conservative girl glam — the look certainly has a longer lineage than people realize, and Hicks might just be one of the unwitting pioneers.
The MAGA aesthetic has since been analyzed to death, both by amateur content creators on social media and even by experts. Juliet A. Williams, Ph.D., a UCLA gender studies professor, had a fairly straightforward explanation (via WWD) for the phenomenon, which essentially amounted to ideological compliance masked as hyper-femininity. "Women like Karoline Leavitt or Melania Trump are demonstrating fealty to a very specific beauty hierarchy that's crafted in the image of the straight white male gaze," she said.
It's been a while since Hope Hicks disappeared from the political spotlight, with many rumors hinting at a soft fallout after the 2020 presidential race and Trump's infamous allegations of election fraud. However, it might be that Hicks — or her influence as one of Trump's longest-serving aides — never left the room.