Campaign 2012: Fashion in the News

By Cornelius Chapman

An email arrived in my in-box from a friend who's an out-and-proud liberal.  "Can you believe," he wrote, goading me, "that Ann Romney spent a thousand dollars on a blouse?"   At last I thought, I've got the home court advantage in a public policy arguement with someone who keeps up on every aspect of the 2012 presidential race, trivial or profound.

As the son of a man who started out making women's shoes, then moved on to ladies' ready to wear, I'm uniquely qualified to appraise collisions that occur at the intersection of politics and fashion.   In case you missed the story, Mrs.Romney appeared on a morning TV show in a Reed Krakoff blouse that retails for $990.   Ir was a short sleeve silk number with a large yellow bird on it, a bit gaudy perhaps, but the objection was to its price, not to its design.

An article of clothing that cost four figures - rounding up - exposed the Romney's as grossly insensitive to the plight of ordinary people in difficult economic times, according to their detractors.   Proving the truth of the political axiom that trappings of wealth are only obnoxious when displayed by Republicans.

First Lady Michele Obama wore a cobolt blue cocktail dress by designer Barbara Tfank to the 2012 State of the Union address that cost $2,500.   For two low-key public events on Christmas Day in 2012 she wore first a Comme des Garcons skirt that retails for $950, then a Sophie Theallet sundress that will set you back - way back - $2000.   Oh to have been a mouse in the White House when that credit card bill was opened!

Hillary Clinton wears Forest pantsuits that cost $6,350 apiece.   As Bob Dole would say, where's the outrage?  And the grandmommy of them all, Jacqueline Kennedy, the wife of a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth like Ann Romney?   Current retail prices of those Channel suits she looked so stylish in are around $8000.

In his 'Checkers' speech Richard Nixon referred to his wife Pat's "good Republican cloth coat" as evidence that he hadn't received improper reinbursements for campaign expenses, but there is nothing in the Constitution that makes off-price clothing a requirement for the office of the first lady.

So to answer my friend, did Ann Romney pay too much for that blouse with the bird on it?   Perhaps,   She probably could of gotten it half off if whe'd waited for it to go on sale.   But there's an old joke in the rag trade that goes "Why did God create WASP'S?"

The answer: "Somebody has to pay retail."