Melania Trump breaks from the conventional mould of first lady of the United States.

By Conor Duffy.

The role of first lady is fairly unique to America — a non-monarchical spouse to a head of state who nevertheless plays an influential and highly visible political role.

Melania Trump will be only the second foreign-born first lady.

She grew up in communist Slovenia and then went on to become an international supermodel.

Kate Andersen Brower wrote the book ‘First Ladies’, about the women who have occupied the White House.

“In the US we really want the first lady to embody American motherhood, to be a perfect wife to take up an apolitical cause — something that’s not too controversial — and also a really interesting part of being first lady is consoling the country when tragedy strikes.”

In the 1930s and 1940s Eleanor Roosevelt — the longest-serving first lady — blazed a trail advocating for women’s rights and was a key advisor to her husband.

Jackie Kennedy was a famously glamorous first lady who also opened up the White House to Americans with a televised tour.

Laura Bush played a crucial role in comforting Americans after the September 11 attacks.

Michelle Obama is soon to hand over the FLOTUS title and is seen to have played this role — focusing her energies on healthy eating and schools.

“I think Michelle Obama was ground-breaking as the first African America first lady absolutely. But I think if we go back and look in 100 years from now she will be remembered as a very traditional first lady in a lot of ways,” Andersen Brower said.

“She was a mom in chief. That’s what she wanted to do, was to take care of their two daughters, and she did that very well.”

Melania Trump is breaking conventions — unlike most first ladies of the modern era she will not be moving to Washington and will remain with her son at least until the end of the school year.

“Well, I think that Melania Trump not moving to Washington for the first few months at least is really tremendous and unprecedented,” Ms Bower said.

“Every first lady has moved to the White House. It is an incredible honour to be the first lady.

“You have a huge platform, you can do a lot of good. I think that she’ll eventually feel pressured to move to Washington.”

Ivanka Trump was a key advisor to her father during the election and is expected to be an influential first daughter.

“So there’s this vacuum that’s created and I think Ivanka Trump might fill some of that as a hostess and as an adviser to her father.”

After a bruising election year, the other interesting factor is that a number of prominent fashion leaders are refusing to dress Melania Trump.

Jason Wu profited immensely from designing Michelle Obama’s inauguration gowns.

“Usually designers are clamouring to dress the First Lady and the case of Melania Trump, the fact that we hear from Tom Ford and other designers that ‘we don’t want to dress her’ is really unprecedented.

“And usually we give the first lady some space and we don’t blame her for her husband’s politics but I think we’re seeing in this election that it’s no holds barred and we’re really in a new era of American politics.”

The new era will begin when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in at the end of the week.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.