Now You Too Can Own Nancy Pelosi's Red "Don't Mess with Me" Coat

From Town & Country

It was a cold, grey January when Nancy Pelosi, as she often does these days, gifted the internet a viral moment to treasure.

After a consequential showdown in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, she stepped out into the White House lawn looking triumphant. Except, she didn't just walk out casually, she did so strutting in a fire red coat and shades that made her look like a dragon-slayer. A GIF showing Pelosi strapping on her sunglasses quickly became a sensation, especially on Twitter.

The coat in question happened to be designed by a Max Mara, an Italian label that's to coats what Ferrari is to luxury sports cars. For nearly 70 years, the designers at Max Mara (including at various times Karl Lagerfeld, Anne-Marie Beretta, and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac) have been fine-tuning the art of confident outerwear. If you haven't tried on their Teddy Bear coat, you've certainly spotted it.

Savvy merchants that they are, Max Mara recognized an opportunity with the worldwide attention bestowed on Pelosi's victory lap. So, a fire coat that was first designed in 2011 is back, and back with a vengeance-the label is re-issuing the boule shaped coat with the funnel collar and asymmetric fastening at its boutiques and via its website for $2,990.

Ian Griffiths, Max Mara's creative director, introduced the Fire Coat for the Fall 2012 collection with elements that were both feminine and masculine, a dramatic collar and flattering body that also carries a sharp shoulder and sleeve. At its fall 2019 show during Milan Fashion Week, the label underlined its track record on outerwear with a line-up of statement coats that weren't kidding around, sometimes in vibrant hues of blue, cerulean and bright yellow.

Pelosi, it seems, would have bought it around the early Aughts; she first wore it in public to former president Barack Obama's second inaugural in 2013. A happy statement then, she seems to have worn it as armor for its second most high-profile appearance.

The meeting in the Oval Office was an act of political brinksmanship between the Trump White House and newly empowered Democrats, following their congressional victories in November, to hash out a resolution to the government shutdown. In a televised exchange, Trump committed was what widely seen as a strategic blunder-he boasted to Pelosi and Schumer that he would own the fallout from the shutdown. “I will be the one to shut it down," Trump told the Senate and House leaders, and millions of television viewers. "I’m not going to blame you for it.” Pelosi retorted: "Don't characterize the strength that I bring."

The president unaware of his colossal error, Pelosi and Schumer exited the room looking practically ready to do a jig. Schumer was in his usual avuncular style, his reading glasses firmly perched on his nose. Pelosi, on the other hand, cruised out of the White House like the heroine of her own narrative.

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