Fashion Flap on the Campaign Trail

Hockey moms huddled at freezing hockey games are usually bundled up in sweat pants, turtlenecks, ankle boots and bulky coats, not Valentino jackets and Manolo Blahnik stilletos. But looking gorgeous on the campaign trail, even for a self-proclaimed pit bull and hockey mom like Sarah Palin, gets a lot of attention when you are the Republican candidate for Vice President. Some say Palin’s high-style fashion revision is her attempt to revive the cratering US economy by investing in the designer couture sector. Not everyone agrees.

“With all the important issues facing the country right now,” said a McCain campaign spokeswoman questioned about the propriety of Palin’s conspicuous consumption at a time of global economic crisis, “You’d think we would have more important things to talk about than pantsuits and purses!”

But when the subject is shelling out more than $150,000 on clothing and accessories from the most pricey, upscale retailers in the US, including $4,716 on hair and makeup, $75,062 on wardrobe and accessories from Neiman Marcus and $49,425 from Saks Fifth Avenue in the months of August and September alone, it is not surprising that shopping sprees of such a heroic nature would rivet our attention, especially when the outlays were paid for by the Republican National Party as campaign expenses.

The clothes were purchased for Palin by her fashion image team who thought that $150,000 was not excessive for a woman in such a prominant position. After all, one outfit worn by Cindy McCain at the Republican convention, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, was estimated by the editors of Vanity Fair to cost $313,100. But then, Cindy McCain can afford to buy her own clothes. She is heir to a family beer fortune. When asked, McCain, both Bydens, and both Obamas said they pay for their own clothes, too.

Maverick Makeover

The average US household spends about $1,874 a year on clothes and services, according to the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Joe and Josephine Sixpack, the “real Americans” from Main Street continually praised by Palin and McCain, might consider these expenditures over-the-top. Hockey mom Wanda Routier, interviewed by a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News said, “It is a lot of money to spend when the economy is the way it is and ordinary Americans are suffering.” Suddenly, Walmart, Target and Marshalls are not good enough for Mrs. Joe Sixpack?

Cindi Leive, editor-in-chief of Glamour Magazine, asked readers to vote in an online poll on whether the Palin clothing expenditures were too high; 72 percent said they were. Editor Leive’s unsolicited comment to Palin about the fashion fiasco was, “Honey, I could have dressed you for a lot less than that! In general, you look terrific, but if you asked me to figure out where the $150,000 went, I’m not sure I could tell you.”

A watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Republican Party violated campaign finance laws by buying Sarah Palin and her family the $150,000 in clothes for campaign appearances. The complaint names as defendants Palin, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and operatives associated with the RNC. The Federal Election Campaign Act specifically prohibits expenditures for such purposes.

For her part, Palin says the new duds aren’t really hers but belong to the Republican National Committee, and will be donated to charity when the campaign is over. Back home in Alaska, Palin says, her family shops frugally and her favorite store is a consignment shop. Except for her titanium eyeglasses, that is! You betcha they didn’t come from a used clothing store!

Palin, who used the occasion of barnstorming for the Republican ticket as an excuse to fill her closets with the best threads she could buy, a personal perk that no other national candidate, past or present, has ever enjoyed, is not finished amassing her political wardrobe.

On Monday, October 20th, the day before the Alaska governor appeared at a Reno rally, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, one of Palin’s assistants bought her a new suit for the occasion at an Ann Taylor store in an upscale Reno mall. The McCain campaign said her newly purchased ensemble, like the others acquired for $150,000, will be donated to charity after the election season.

Palin’s pricy threads continue to rankle both inside and outside of Republican ranks. The embarrassing price tag of her lavish campaign wardrobe has caused well-heeled Republican donors to gnash their teeth, decry the campaign’s political insensibility and the burden Palin has become to the ticket, while the campaign’s finance specialists question the legality of the spending. Meanwhile, media attention, which has focused like a laser on this ongoing saga, may remind some voters of the adage, “The Devil wears Prada.”