Melania Trump is chic in Prada at New York Stock Exchange amid parents' protest

First Lady of the United States Melania Trump rocked a cap-sleeve black Prada dress with black pumps at the event at New York Stock Exchange on Monday. "Be Best" flashed on lightboxes all around the exchange when the 49-year-old surrounded by the 10 students rang the opening bell of the stock exchange at 9:30 a.

The event marked the start of Monday's trading. It was also Melania Trump's first trip to the Stock Exchange, reports Vanity Fair.

She was chic in her dress choice considering Miuccia Prada showed her spring 2020 collection in Milan last week, with the message of "the power of women over clothes," according to WWD.

FLOTUS somehow managed to bring 10 students from New York City's United Nations International School despite protests lodged by several parents against the use of their children like a "political prop". She looked unperturbed by the protests.

The administration had invited children as a part of Melania's "Be Best" initiative, which aims at helping children's overall well-being, online safety and their exposure to the opioid epidemic.

Parents had publicly and in several emails expressed concern that their children's appearance with Melania would signal an endorsement of the Trump administration. Parents also found it strange that UNIS accepted the invitation in the first place, considering the fact that the school had organised grief counselling and special activities for students to cope up with President Donald Trump's election win.

"Instead of enlisting some photogenic kids as UNIS PR props, might I suggest we offer to the U.S. Mission that they could invite some children from the cages in Mexicali?," a parent reportedly wrote in an e-mail, reports The Cut.

Meanwhile, the school in a letter to concerned parents noted that they simply hope to embody the United Nation's mission of "giving voice to differing opinions and positions." "Over 90 families volunteered to have their children be a part of the day. Please know that we view our participation as an opportunity to share the UNIS values with the First Lady," the UNIS wrote in a letter to concerned parents.

The UNIS was established in 1947 by a group of parents who had served in the United Nations, to provide international education for their children.

The 10 children who attended the Stock Exchange event received a "Be Best bag" that contained a hat, T-shirt, and mouse pad. According to a Daily Mail report, before the arrival of the FLOTUS, a kid was heard telling another, "someone else was supposed to be here, but their parents didn't want them".

The ringing of bells to mark the start and end of the stock trading day at the New York Stock Exchange office has been a tradition since the late 1800s. Though the bell is automated and is done by pressing a button, notable people are often invited on special occasions and honoured as the actual ringer of the bell.