In 1961, John F. Kennedy made a statement on his Inauguration Day by taking off his hat. This time around, Melania Trump did so by keeping her hat on.

To be specific, by keeping on the navy boater-style toque that matched the navy double-breasted coat, navy pencil skirt and ivory blouse Mrs. Trump chose for her husband’s swearing-in.

It’s not that wearing a hat to a presidential inauguration is so unusual. Previous first ladies, including Mamie Eisenhower, Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy, wore hats on Inauguration Day. It’s just that said hats were usually of the pillbox sort, specifically conceived not to hide the first lady’s face.

Mrs. Trump’s inaugural hat, by contrast, had a brim so broad that it shaded her eyes. Whatever she was thinking was impossible to see — by design. (It also made it hard for her husband to get anywhere near her cheek for a kiss, and drew some comparisons to Zorro.) Along with her tightly buttoned coat and high-neck blouse, the hat gave her an air of mystery and inaccessibility that was unusual for an inauguration, when the first family is traditionally put on view as the new face of the nation.

It was, however, in line with the guarded image Mrs. Trump has cultivated since her husband emerged on the political scene. Not to mention the promise of an imperial presidency that President Trump has dangled.

That she declined to remove her hat and coat even inside the Capitol Rotunda, and even while Mr. Trump took the oath of office, only underscored the point. Mrs. Trump may have just written a best-selling memoir, and be producing a documentary about her second stint in the White House, but she is drawing her own borders.

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