伊萬卡·特朗普該不該穿自己的服裝品牌？

A few hours after her father’s news conference on Wednesday at Trump Tower, Ivanka Trump posted a notice on her personal Facebook page officially announcing that she was taking a “formal leave of absence” from all management and operative responsibilities at her fashion brand and that she would be stepping down from her role at the Trump Organization.

周三，父親在特朗普大廈(Trump Tower)的新聞發(fā)布會結(jié)束幾小時后，伊萬卡·特朗普(Ivanka Trump)便在自己的Facebook頁面上發(fā)出通知，官方宣布“正式離職”，放下在其時尚品牌的所有管理和經(jīng)營職責(zé)，并表示將辭去在特朗普集團(Trump Organization)的職務(wù)。

She would, she wrote, be spending the next few months concentrating on settling her children into their new lives in Washington and exploring how she could “determine the most impactful and appropriate ways for me to serve our country.”

她寫道，接下來的幾個月時間她將專注于讓自己的孩子適應(yīng)在華盛頓的新生活，并探索如何“確定最有效、最合適的方式，讓我可以為國家服務(wù)”。

This follows earlier decisions to separate her personal social media accounts from those of her brand. Yet in one meaningful area, Ms. Trump and her brand are harder to divide: That is, her wardrobe.

早前，她還決定將自己個人的社交媒體賬號同其品牌的賬號分開。但在一個意味深長的領(lǐng)域，伊萬卡·特朗普和她的品牌是更加難以分開的：那就是她的衣著。

After all, the same day she announced she was separating Ivanka Trump the person from Ivanka Trump the brand, The Daily Mail announced she had worn an Ivanka Trump coat to her father’s news conference. Then it offered a get-the-look box and link. In case, you know, anyone wanted to buy the garment.

畢竟，在她宣布將伊萬卡·特朗普本人和伊萬卡·特朗普這個品牌分開的同一天，《每日郵報》(The Daily Mail)宣布，她參加父親的新聞發(fā)布會時，穿的是伊萬卡·特朗普品牌的外套。之后，該報提供了一個購買詳情鏈接。你懂的，說不定有人想買這件衣服呢。

That turned out not to be true — according to a spokesman for Ms. Trump, the coat was by Joseph Altuzarra — but the confusion around woman and product made for some uncomfortable optics, and it raises the question: What does it mean to separate individual from company where fashion is concerned?

事實證明這一消息不屬實。據(jù)伊萬卡·特朗普的發(fā)言人稱，那件外套出自約瑟夫·奧圖扎拉(Joseph Altuzarra)。但圍繞女性和產(chǎn)品而起的困惑產(chǎn)生了一些令人不舒服的喧囂，并引發(fā)了質(zhì)疑：在有關(guān)時尚的領(lǐng)域，將個人同公司分開是什么意思?

On the one hand, there’s something ridiculous about suggesting that Ms. Trump not wear whatever clothes are in her closet, and as the founder of a fashion brand that bears her name, presumably part of her job has been to promote said brand by wearing it — to, in effect, demonstrate her belief in her own products. So she probably has a lot of such products within reach. And it’s not her fault if some media outlet chooses to point out that she looks good and tells people how they, too, can look good.

一方面，如果讓伊萬卡·特朗普不能隨心所欲地穿她衣櫥里的衣服，這顯得有些荒唐。作為一個以自己名字命名的時尚品牌的創(chuàng)始人，通過穿戴該品牌的產(chǎn)品來宣傳它，想來該是她工作的一部分，實際上也是為了證明她對自家產(chǎn)品的信心。因此，她身邊很可能有大量這樣的產(chǎn)品。如果一些媒體渠道愿意指出她形象很好，并告訴人們，通過怎么做，他們也能變得這么好，那并不是她的錯。

On the other hand, her brand is clearly built on her image: Not just her name, but her face, and what she represents. It’s selling the promise that women who wear her clothes can get a piece of her gold dust — and now that this gold dust is visible in the corridors (and news conferences) of power, that is only going to be more true. Every time she is pictured in an Ivanka Trump outfit, it is bound to give a boost to the Ivanka Trump brand. Whether or not they are technically linked.

另一方面，她的品牌顯然是建立在她的形象基礎(chǔ)上的：不僅是她的名字，還有她的臉，以及她所代表的東西。它賣的是一種承諾：女性穿她的衣服便能擁有她的些許高貴——由于可以在權(quán)力走廊(以及新聞發(fā)布會上)看到這種高貴，這種承諾只會顯得更加真實。每當(dāng)她被拍到身穿伊萬卡·特朗普品牌的套裝，這個品牌就一定會受到宣傳。不管從技術(shù)上來說兩者是否有任何聯(lián)系。

It’s unclear whether Ms. Trump would benefit from that financially, as specifics about her monetary relationship with her brand were not included in her statement. But even if she is selling her part of the company, for a prominent member of the first family to be seen to be endorsing a brand with her own name on it is a complicated proposition. And an endorsement is exactly what an appearance in an item of clothing has become.

目前尚不清楚伊萬卡·特朗普是否會因此在經(jīng)濟上受益，因為她的聲明沒有詳細(xì)介紹她和她的品牌在經(jīng)濟上的關(guān)系。但是，即便她賣掉自己持有的該公司股份，第一家族的著名成員被人看到支持一個以自己名字命名的品牌，這也是一件復(fù)雜的事情。并且支持已經(jīng)完全變成了通過穿著一件衣服來亮相。

This is a time, like it or not, of obsession with the wardrobe selections of anyone in the public eye, especially women in the public eye (their clothes are more interesting than men’s, after all). And though she has repeatedly said that she will not take a formal role in the new administration, Ms. Trump is emerging as the female face of her father’s inner circle. Simply consider the news conference, where she was the only woman from the immediate family in attendance. There’s a reason The Daily Mail did not get into the specifics of what her brothers wore. She is smart enough to know that any time she steps out of her door, someone is going to try to snap a picture and parse her clothes.

不管我們喜不喜歡，這是一個對公眾人物的著裝選擇著迷的時代，特別是女性公眾人物(畢竟她們的衣服比男性的更有意思)。盡管伊萬卡·特朗普多次表示自己不會在新一屆政府中擔(dān)任正式職務(wù)，但她正在成為特朗普核心集團中的女性代表。就以這次新聞發(fā)布會為例，她是在場直系親屬中的唯一一名女性?！睹咳锗]報》沒有詳細(xì)介紹她兄弟的著裝是有原因的。她足夠聰明，知道不管什么時候，只要自己一踏出家門，就會有人想拍照并分析她的著裝。

You can argue that Ms. Trump is not an elected official, and thus to demand that she recuse herself from all products associated with her name is unfair punishment. You could say that if she wears, for example, an Alexander McQueen dress, as she did on election night, she is giving that brand a boost, so why shouldn’t she do the same for her own brand? You can point out that there is precedent because she wore her own line numerous times during the campaign, including to introduce her father at the Republican National Convention — but then, the latter choice was not without controversy.

你可以說伊萬卡·特朗普并不是民選官員，因而要求她遠(yuǎn)離和她名字有關(guān)的一切產(chǎn)品是不公平的懲罰。你可以舉個例子說，如果她就像在選舉夜那樣穿一條亞歷山大·麥昆(Alexander McQueen)的裙子，從而宣傳了該品牌，那么她為什么不該為自己的品牌這么做?你可以說這是有先例的，因為她在競選期間多次穿過自己品牌的衣服，包括在共和黨全國大會(Republican National Convention)上介紹自己的父親，但是后一種選擇并不是沒有爭議。

In part, the resulting brouhaha was, of course, because her brand then promoted that appearance with its own “get the look” link, as it famously did, without her knowledge, when she wore her own-brand bracelet during her family’s appearance on “60 Minutes.” Presumably that won’t happen any more. But brands need personalities to succeed, at whatever price point, and those personalities derive most easily from, well, a person.

在一定程度上，引發(fā)風(fēng)波當(dāng)然是因為她的品牌在她不知情的情況下，自己制作了“購買”鏈接來宣傳那次亮相。這情形就跟上一次一樣，在伊萬卡·特朗普戴著自家品牌的手鐲和家人亮相《60分鐘》(60 Minutes)時，該品牌也沒有告知她就這么干了，這件事轟動一時。這種情況大概不會再發(fā)生了，但品牌需要有個性才能取得成功，不管付出什么代價，而個性最容易從一個人身上獲得。

A scenario in which Ivanka Trump the brand removes Ms. Trump utterly from its identity is hard to imagine. Though to be fair, the brand’s website is adorned with images and line drawings of many different kinds of women and not with Ms. Trump, so it may be possible.

難以想象伊萬卡·特朗普品牌將伊萬卡·特朗普從自己的身份中完全去掉的情形。不過公平地說，該品牌的網(wǎng)站上放了很多不同類型女性的照片和圖畫，但沒有伊萬卡·特朗普的，因此去掉她或許也是有可能的。

Either way, this is another illustration of the multiple complicated issues that are going to arise with a member of the first family who also had designs on being a fashion brand. There’s really no playbook for this, as the Ivanka team — figuring it out as it goes along — is quick to remind. In which case, the clothes question should be the next piece of the puzzle to be solved.

不管怎樣，這再次提供了一個例子，證明這位曾經(jīng)力圖打造時尚品牌的第一家族成員將要面臨眾多復(fù)雜問題。伊萬卡團隊很快會明白——他們會在前進途中漸漸發(fā)現(xiàn)——這種事真的沒有什么捷徑。在這種情況下，著裝問題應(yīng)該成為下一個要解決的難題。