Fast fashion is known to kick up all kinds of digital debate about overconsumption, environmentalism, designer knockoffs and other issues, but the latest kerfuffle is over Jennifer Hegseth’s choice of a Shein dress for Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C.
The back-and-forth about the ultra-cheap frock is a telltale sign of how political figures’ fashion choices are increasingly being scrutinized and celebrated by thousands on social media. However, it was not Hegseth, a former longtime Fox News executive and producer whose spouse Pete is the U.S. Secretary of War, who spread the word about her fashion choice. Parsons student Ella Devi cast the spotlight on Hegseth’s dress in a social media post, but by erroneously identifying it as a similar $20 one from another Chinese fast-fashion platform — Temu. A few days ago Devi posted “Pete Hegseth’s wife wore a dress from Temu to the white house correspondents’ dinner (I’m not joking).”
Hegseth could not be reached for comment and had not acknowledged a DM Tuesday afternoon. A spokesperson for Shein said that no one was available to comment at this time.
In an interview Tuesday, Devi, who is studying photography and English at Parsons, said a reverse image search had led her to misidentify the dress as one from Temu. As for why she was interested in finding out the name of brand, Devi said, “I talk a lot [on ‘X’] about the sartorial [fashion] choices of right-wing women.”
As for the response to her post, Devi said that has also included a “few more senior people, who work in fashion, have tried to allude that she does not have the technical experience to comment about fashion-related matters.”
Declining to identify those critics, Devi said she has worked in fashion, since she was about 13 years old, including pitching in at six editions of New York Fashion Week and interning at LaQuan Smith for nearly 18 months.
She also claimed that this is not the first “smear campaign” that she has faced. After misidentifying the esteemed actor Wallace Shawn, whom she canvassed with last fall for the election of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a social media post, Devi was trolled and was featured in a New York Post article that described her as “the hot girl for Zohran.” She said, “That was smaller scale but my feet will land on the ground just fine. And I’ll keep posting.”
Devi has no affiliation with Temu, which reportedly was trending on “X” Monday in the wake of the debate. But she has received robo emails from Temu in the past offering brand ambassadorships, after posting about Temu products. While that is “a little ironic” in hindsight, Devi said she has no plans to take the fast fashion platform up on that offer.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Hegseth’s Instagram post of a photo of her wearing the one-shoulder Shein dress with her husband at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had racked up more than 7,000 likes on Tuesday.
