The Life of Model Turned First Lady Melania Trump

In the mid-1990s, Melania settled into a cycle of work between Paris and Milan, two key centers of European fashion. She shared apartments with other models, including Victoria Silvstedt, and took on catalog and editorial jobs that helped her maintain steady, if not yet high-profile, work.

During this period, she began reshaping her professional identity, adapting her name from “Melanija Knavs” to the more internationally friendly “Melania Knauss.” The change made her easier to market to global clients and signaled her ambition to move beyond regional modeling jobs toward opportunities with broader international reach.