Tommy Hilfiger: 'Any Designer Should Be Proud' to Dress Melania Trump

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Time(NEW YORK) — Just days after fashion designer Sophie Theallet announced in an open letter that she would not dress Melania Trump, Tommy Hilfiger has spoken out in favor of the future first lady.

In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Hilfiger responded to a question about Theallet’s letter with praise for Melania Trump.

Calling her “very beautiful,” Hilfiger said that he believes Trump won’t have a tough time finding designers who are willing to make clothes for her.

“I think any designer should be proud to dress her,” he told the publication. “Ivanka is equally as beautiful and smart, although she wears her own clothes. I don’t think people should become political about it. Everyone was very happy to dress Michelle [Obama] as well. I think they look great in the clothes. You’re not gonna get much more beautiful than Ivanka or Melania.”

Hilfiger has known the president-elect for some time, and his company, Star Branding, has an office in Trump Tower. According to the Federal Election Commission website, he donated $5,400 to Trump’s presidential campaign, and his corporation gave the same amount to Hillary Clinton’s.

Last week, Theallet, who has designed for Michelle Obama, published an open letter in which she said she did not feel comfortable associating her brand with the Trumps. She encouraged her fellow designers to follow suit.

“As one who celebrates and strives for diversity, individual freedom and respect for all lifestyles, I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next first lady,” she wrote. “The rhetoric of racism, sexism and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by.”

Open letter | Sophie Theallet | November 17th, 2016 pic.twitter.com/g1hIAyBmdF

— sophie theallet (@sophietheallet) November 17, 2016

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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