Looking for ‘the good, the true, and the beautiful’

“We’re just here to support America, we’re supporting the president. But we’re supporting the culture in general. We’re supporting family, we’re supporting God and then putting our faith first,” she said, in a black and navy Reformation gown that seemed to be in direct dialogue with the nearby stack of pink “Make America Hot Again” hats.

The party was celebrating The Conservateur’s growing success. And it drew a full house of some of D.C.’s newest young professionals: loud and proud conservative women.

Powerful, too. Sipping on signature “God and Countries” (grapefruit and tequila) and “Appeal to Heavens” (gin, lemon, and champagne), young women working for Trump admin heavy hitters like Kristi Noem, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Karoline Leavitt chatted, networked, and compared outfits. A few were Fox News-level glam, with bright dresses, full makeup, and not a hair out of place, but the overall tone was a mix of Tory Burch polish meets bright and boho Anthropologie. Their style inspiration didn’t fall along partisan lines, however. My informal poll found that their political fashion icons were either Jackie Kennedy or Melania Trump — and often both.

There were a few men in the crowd. Some doting partners (and many others no doubt aspiring to be). But the ratio was an oddity for any conservative event I’ve ever been to. Rachael Razzano, a 29-year-old working in financial services from Bethesda, told me how happy she was to find a community of likeminded women. “There’s so much over the last several years where you kind of felt that you were the minority in certain situations, and almost afraid to voice that opinion or express it in a fashionable sense.”

But this event wasn’t special just because it offered conservative women a cosmopolitan venue in which to gather and speak their minds without fear of liberal side-eye. It was notable because they were unapologetic about it.

Donald Trump’s reelection wasn’t just a reaction to progressive politics. It was a revolt against progressive culture. That was most obvious among the young men who shifted to the right in reaction to a cultural slide to the left they perceived as hostile to them.

The male backlash manifested in nonpolitical media — think videogame streaming, comedy podcasts, sports commentary. Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, endorsed Donald Trump. So did Joe Rogan, who not only has the world’s most popular podcast but has started a comedy empire in Austin, far from New York’s more politically correct sensibilities. YouTube pranksters the Nelk Boys took a break from chugging hard seltzers to speak at a Trump rally — and ask for a reduction on the taxes on Zyns.

But it turns out that some young women felt the progressive left’s hostility, too.

Even as young women more broadly have become increasingly liberal, the women gathered at Butterworth’s represent a demographic cohort that is pushing back against a version of feminism that they think sees men and motherhood as, at best, necessary inconveniences and, at worse, a prison. A kind of feminism that considers pregnancy a problem to solve and femininity a weakness.

These conservative women are standing up to a culture they see as promoting promiscuity and self-indulgence and forsaking refinement and beauty. The Conservateur is both an example of this rightward reaction and an attempt to package it: a lifestyle brand that gives women a judgment-free zone where beauty and fashion play nice with motherhood and domesticity.

And it makes the publication rare in a women’s media landscape dominated by the decidedly liberal. Alex Cooper’s podcast “Call Her Daddy” is not far behind Rogan’s in the rankings, and it’s often described as the female version of “locker room talk.” Cooper, who broke away from Barstool in 2021 following a very public dispute with Portnoy, was the most popular podcaster to interview Kamala Harris.

And then there are the legacy media style sections and lifestyle magazines like Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, which increasingly highlight liberal politicos. Although Vogue declined to give Melania a cover while she was first lady the first time around, Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton got their airbrushed cover shoots.

The Conservateur, in contrast, includes articles that give an exclusive look into a conservative commentator’s classic country wedding — featuring “seed oil-free snacks” and cowboy hats. There is a profile of Lara Trump’s new fitness line, with an abundance of red-white-and-blue apparel. The vibe is decidedly fashion plus lifestyle plus amplifying conservative women’s voices.

Dawn Sturmon, mom of two and a contributor at The Conservateur, left Vogue in 2021. She told me that while she loved writing for the magazine, she got tired of the outlet’s increasingly liberal bias. “It started to become, I guess, almost socially costly to have a different viewpoint or to follow the wrong people on Instagram. And politics got really loud in America. And at that time, Vogue got louder too,” she told me.

“It became pretty clear that the publication had zero interest in acknowledging anything remotely positive about the right, whether it was policy or fashion.”

The Conservateur trends less toward the botoxed, blown-out glam you might associate with some high-profile Republicans. It leans more toward classic silhouettes like the figure-hugging shift dress, updated by sleek designer labels that traffic in quiet luxury and with playful bohemian touches in the mix.

And nostalgia. Lots of nostalgia.

“Inspired by the adventurism of the Wild West, the heritage of the Northeast, the charm of the South, and the patriotism of the Heartland, The Conservateur captures America’s quintessential style and traditions,” its website reads. “The Conservateur restores long-lost moral and aesthetic refinement.” It’s not just a glossy online spread — it’s a moral rebellion for, as they put it, vintage virtues.

Because they’re not just reacting to the liberal bias in fashion magazines, they’re rejecting what they see as style’s degradation. Take, for example, Teen Vogue’s 2017 suggestion that sneakers and “tailored pajamas” are appropriate for the office. Such a notion might cause the well-turned-out ladies at The Conservateur to clutch their timeless pearls.

“A woman should strive to be beautiful, smart, sophisticated, well dressed, and speak well and speak confidently,” Chandler told me the week leading up to the event. And somewhat retro beauty standards are a part of that. “Everybody has a different figure, and making yourself look the most flattering — like, even the word flattering is offensive to these people, because they basically want to push away from traditional beauty standards.” The unspoken standard among The Conservateur set is fit and slim. MAHA, after all, stands for both Make American Healthy — and Hot — Again.

But The Conservateur’s most pointed riposte to liberal lifestyle media is in its editorial tone, which is far less sex therapist and more big sister. Taking the microphone shortly after Chandler at Butterworth’s, The Conservateur’s editor in chief, Caroline Downey, wearing an immaculate pink minidress with teardrop beading by the Wolf Gang and silver Dolce Vita pumps, said that “left-wing fashion magazines” are “glamorizing bad ideas, they’re glamorizing evil.”

In an interview a few days after the event, Downey, who’s also a staff writer at National Review, clarified. “On the culture level, what [mainstream fashion magazines] tend to push in the aggregate is what I would say is just degeneracy. Whether that’s condoning adultery or concerning what I would say is kind of sexual licentiousness or toxic dating habits.” She listed examples from Vogue, Cosmo, and others. Articles that condone — or even encourage — cheating. (For example: It can feel so sexy to cheat on your husband — while he’s a few rooms over.) An interview about how naked yoga on OnlyFans helped a woman bare her soul — among other things. How a husband and wife picked up polyamory, loved it, and are probably going to get divorced anyway (but did I mention the extra partner helped put the kids to bed?).

“You can’t let Elle and Glamour, beautiful as their graphic design is, dominate that story, dominate those issues,” Downey said. “We do have a value proposition at The Conservateur, which is that our lifestyle is better. The good, the true, and the beautiful is really what we stand for.”

The Conservateur’s lifestyle advice centers around three M’s: motherhood, monogamy, and modesty. It frowns on any version of girlbossing that sees motherhood as a hurdle to success and fulfillment. “[The Conservateur] is a rejection of what feminism fundamentally taught, which was that your nature, your biological function — you are a slave to it, it is a prison,” Downey told me.

When it comes to dating and marriage, men aren’t to be vetted for how well they can tamp down their inherent toxicity but for their godliness, their ability to protect and provide. And there’s no need to show excessive skin to bring them in — classy is hot. “We’re very adamant about encouraging good fathers and just good men generally,” Downey told me. “The men in your lives should be worthy of, frankly, parenting.”

That this draws on traditionalism doesn’t mean it’s stuffy or a byproduct of the romanticized — and widely mocked — version of the tradwife trend. Chandler told me, “It’s not just about putting on a sundress and, like, making a TikTok video. It’s actually about women who really feel like feminism and this corporate girlboss culture failed them, and they don’t feel supported in this modern culture by other women if they want to live a more traditional life.” And this is resonating with the cosmopolitan and undeniably ambitious crowd at Butterworth’s.

“I really am not on the hate-men train,” said Emily, a 26-year-old spokeswoman in the Trump admin attending The Conservateur party at Butterworth’s. She wore a drapey white satin minidress with balloon sleeves and carried a chic golden clutch — a souvenir from a trip with her boyfriend in Greece. “When you have a great, incredible man in your life like I do, it is such a blessing. It allows me to be who I want to be.”

She continued, “Another thing I find a lot is this shame of motherhood, and that it’s this horrible thing to have children.… Being a mom is going to be the best day of my life; that’s going to be my peak.” Nor does she like casual sex culture. “It really does take away your soul and your confidence, and over time, you just don’t feel great.”

Nearby, Reagan Reese, the Daily Caller’s White House correspondent, observed that women like her are looking for lifestyle advice for women who are “wanting to have a career but also want to embrace their femininity and have a family.” Wearing a tailored light pink blazer dress with a cape and a matching pink bag, she told me that magazines like Vogue and Cosmo “have not been pro-family, and also, I think like being pro-woman is wanting women to play into their femininity and the things that make them unique.”

Through her own political coverage, she has found that the left’s attempt to fully equate women and men has come at a disadvantage. “I think Kamala Harris was trying to emulate more of, like, a masculine vibe. There’s this press conference with Zelensky. She kind of walks in all stiff. She tries to assert herself. And I think that put her back,” she told me. “I think you can have more success in the workplace by drawing on the things that make you beautiful, by being elegant and classy.”

There’s one glaring question: How can so many women feel empowered by a movement that in many ways has been given traction by Trump, someone many American women see as, well, anti-woman? “I just couldn’t fundamentally disagree with that more,” Chandler said. She turned to abortion. “I hate that they call that woman’s rights, because for me, that is so anti-woman. I could talk about it on a religious level. I could talk about it on a moral level, a practical level, a scientific level, of why I believe in the sanctity of life and why I think abortion is so harmful for a woman. And you know, that has a lot to do with the culture of the degradation of sex and relationships.”

Then they’ll point you to the many high-ranking women appointed by Trump. People like United States Attorney General Pam Bondi and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And young women, too, like Karoline Leavitt, a 27-year-old mother and the youngest-ever White House press secretary.

But what about Trump the thrice-married playboy? Trump the alleged sexual predator? “Trump’s definitely had a crazy life and everything, but at the end of the day for me, I have my pastor, I have my priest, and that’s who I look to for moral guidance,” Chandler told me. “I’m looking for who’s bringing the policies that are going to better my family, that are going to better my life.”

And for Chandler and the well-heeled Conservateur enthusiasts at Butterworth’s, that better life is about a feminine renewal that comes with the chivalry and tradition of yesteryear, without sacrificing the ambitions — and fashion trends — of today.

Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at carine.hajjar@globe.com.