Judging a candidate by his wife’s fashion

quite entertaining article

So this week Americans go to the polls to select their new president. Standing in the booths, punching their ballots, they will consider the economy, they will consider policies, and they will consider – clothes.

Clothes? Despite the assertion by the McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt that “with all the important issues facing the country, it’s remarkable we’re talking about pantsuits and blouses” (in reference to the news that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on Governor Palin’s wardrobe) the truth is, in politics as in everything, we have a lot to say about clothing because our clothing has a lot to say about us.

And nowhere has this been more obvious than in the case of the two other highest-profile women in the US presidential election, Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama. Almost without exception, their style choices offer a clear commentary on where their respective husbands and parties stand. To examine the prospective first ladies’ wardrobes is thus not to ignore “the important issues” in America today; it is, on the contrary, to confront the vast differences between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama – differences in values and vision that define this campaign and will determine its winner.

Of the two women’s fashion statements, Cindy McCain’s are probably the easiest to decode, as they visibly embody four basic Republican principles. The first – consistent with her husband’s Bush-aligned voting record – is Continuity. Mrs McCain, like Laura Bush, favours Oscar de la Renta, who has long been the designated White House couturier, and who dressed both ladies for the opening night of the Republican National Convention. Like her other campaign-trail ensembles, the gold shirtwaist Cindy McCain donned for that occasion reflected the formula Nancy Reagan developed in the 1980s. Brightly coloured and unfailingly feminine, McCain’s frocks and suits project an image of soignée, conservative womanhood. (This look couldn’t, significantly, be farther from the aggressive, pant-suited feminism of one-time Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator Hillary Clinton.) Thus attired, the former Arizona rodeo queen is rebranded as the perfect Republican helpmate: Nancy 2.0.

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What Palin fashion costs the Republicans

wow ! She is a real fashionista !

Last night Politico.com broke the story ‘RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion’. The astronomical amount of money has been spent to dress Sarah Palin and her family since she was appointed as John McCain’s running mate in late August.The McCain campaign released a statment a few hours after the story broke on the internet to say that the whole affair was so trivial: “With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt. “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”

more about “What Palin fashion costs the Republic…“, posted with vodpod

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Michelle Obama Endorses Fast Fashion

at least she care about her outfit…

Over the last few months, the media (and, subsequently, the general public) has become borderline obsessed with what the women playing roles in the presidential election are wearing. An average American can not only tell you about the cost of Cindy McCain’s convention attire, and her recycling of accessories. They know the origin of Sarah Palin’s trendsetting eyeglasses—the brainchild of an Obama-endorsing, Japanese designer. But, the real woman making serious fashion waves this election has without a doubt been Michelle Obama. And, she’s continuing to shock and delight fashion lovers by sporting a dress from a certain Swedish retailer on the campaign trail.

According to MrsO—a recently launched-blog that’s keeping track of each and every one of Mrs. Obama’s sartorial steps—the prospective first lady donned a Narcisco Rodriquez-esque H&M dress while campaigning in Detroit, Michigan. And, they’ve got the photos to prove it. Given the economy’s recent downturn, it looks as though Michelle Obama’s style choices continue to be spot on. Does this mean Kate Moss for Topshop, or Rogan for Target is next? Doubtful, but it sure beats Cindy’s $313,000 ensemble.

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Politics’ 1st ladies of fashion create a frenzy with must-have looks

a very detailed and interesting article

Sarah’s specs. Michelle’s dresses. Cindy’s diamonds. Jill’s handbag.

We love them. We want them. We have to have them. Or at the very least, we want to know all about them — just as we did with Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hats and Barbara Bush’s pearls.

The economy may be the main event in the presidential race. But for people who love fashion, campaign-trail style is a compelling sideshow.

Headliners are Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama, both 44. Cindy McCain, 54, and Jill Biden, 57, are the bit players. But the moment any of them shows up in a new outfit, the fashion media starts digging for details, the bloggers start commenting and the public relations corps fires off news releases claiming bragging rights for designers.

Dresses and pearls

First it was Obama’s dresses, starting with the magenta sheath she wore the evening she famously fist-bumped her husband, Barack Obama, as he claimed the Democratic nomination in June. Overnight, the name on every fashionista’s lips was Maria Pinto, the Chicago designer who made the sleeveless, V-neck dress.

And the necklace she wore with the dress prompted a rapid-response news release trumpeting, “Michelle Obama has been accessorizing her much-appraised style with Carolee pearls.”

So many women followed her lead that Carolee has seen a double-digit percentage increase in sales of the $50 necklace, company spokeswoman Ashley Futterknecht said.

Specs and retro hair

The day after the Democrats’ convention ended, Sarah Palin burst onto the scene — and immediately sparked a gotta-have-it frenzy among fans. They want her rimless eyeglasses, her red shoes, even her beehive hairdo.

“Her eyeglasses, and the way she is wearing them with such confidence, has had an impact, big-time,” said James J. Spina, editor-in-chief at 20/20, a leading eyewear-industry magazine.

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Sarah Palin’s Unassertive Fashion Statement

she is doing quite well whent i comes down to fashion

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s style is exceptionally ordinary. Nothing about it connotes authority. No detail announces that she is in charge. And that’s what makes it so powerful.

The rimless glasses that dominate her face are as banal as modern spectacles come. The entire goal of their design is to have them go unnoticed. They are not meant to frame her features as much as they are crafted to avoid detracting from her big brown eyes.

Her clothes are unpretentious, but they are also unremarkable. They have nothing to do with Fashion. It’s fashion show season now, with designers unveiling their spring 2009 collections in New York, Milan and soon Paris. So far, none of them have suggested that the next new thing for the power-wielding woman is a straight black skirt with a boxy, oyster-colored blazer, which is what Palin wore when she accepted the vice-presidential nomination in St. Paul, Minn.

In the narrow confines of political style, the accepted rule is to dress in a manner that implies empathy for one’s constituency — so don’t wear anything too expensive — but also conveys authority. Palin has embraced the former and utterly ignored the latter. Nothing about her style jibes with the image of power. She does not dress like a boss lady, an Iron Lady or the devil who wore Prada.

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‘The Duchess’ made an 18th century political fashion statement

the pictures are amazing!

We tend to think of flying one’s political colors as a modern development; red-blooded Republicans, true blue Democrats, red states versus blue states and all that.

But lately, it’s getting harder to decipher a colorful political fashion flag.

For instance, Republican First Lady Laura Bush wore a bright red gown to the presidential inaugural ball in 2001 and often wore red for the next eight years. But Republican First Lady Barbara Bush wore blue to her inaugural and kept wearing “Barbara blue” for the next four years.

Democrat Rosalyn Carter wore a blue dress that she’d previously worn when Jimmy Carter became governor of Georgia. And Republican Nancy Reagan, although renowned for wearing red during her eight-year first lady stint, actually wore white to her inaugural.

So far we’ve seen Cindy McCain look smashing in red and Michelle Obama looking beautiful in blue. But who knows what color either of them would wear to the Inaugural Ball in 2009?

Wearing political colors is nothing new, according to Michael O’Connor, the costume designer for “The Duchess.” He says that Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, was one of the first women to use color to make a political fashion statement back in the 18th century.

“Georgina was known for setting certain trends, and so they would always caricature them in the press, in magazines and periodicals,” says O’Connor, who designed 27 gowns just for the film’s star, Keira Knightley.

And she cunningly used color to rally support for her favorite political party, the Whigs, whose hues were blue and buff, at a time when women were deemed mere property, not allowed to own anything, have a profession or even to vote.

Shown above, O’Connor designed a “military style monkey jacket” based on a newspaper caricature of her campaigning for the Whig Party, visiting soldiers who were going to the impending war with France.

“I took the idea based on the caricature that portraying her kissing people for votes. Her campaigning costume started a sort of masculine style for aristocratic women. And because the Whig Party had certain colors, which were blue and buff, the men were often seen or painted with these buff colored waistcoats and blue tailcoats, so I decided she would have her costume in blue and buff. And it would be cut open like that with a buff waist coat, and her accessories would be fox fur.”

Why fox? Because the Whig candidate and her secret lover was Charles James Fox, who would become a mover and shaker in Parliament.

Georgina launched a hot-air balloon decorated in the Whig official colors of blue and buff in the 1784 election and inspired other aristocratic ladies to show up at Whig rallies, attired in the party’s hues with foxtails in their hair.

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NY fashion: politics, celebs, and unsexy clothes

nice article!

"Hi there! I hate you." "Hello! I hate you too." Photograph: Peter Kramer/AP

Perhaps because the most important runway this season at New York fashion week wasn’t in the city’s traditional venues but on CNN, as the country became increasingly obsessed with Michelle Obama’s shift dresses, Cindy McCain’s wardrobe expenditure and, of course, Sarah Palin’s glasses, the shows themselves often felt a little limp in comparison. Fashion designers reacted by trying to outdo the competition, with a combination of glitzy parties, celebrities and canny, publicity-seeking timely references, thus making this New York fashion week, dull clothes aside, one of the more memorable for years. Here is a guide to everything you need to know.

Political support

As the rest of America obsessed over Sarah Palin and lipstick-sporting pigs, New York designers showed their love for Obama. Diane von Furstenberg and Marc Jacobs were prominent Clinton supporters, but both loyally – or disloyally, depending on your point of view – stuck with the Democrats and bigged up Barack. Anna Wintour hosted an Obama fundraiser, but her enthusiasm might have waned after the Obama team sent out invitations on which they referred to their host as “Ann Wintour”. Yet the runways told a different story. This week’s fashion icon was Cindy McCain, with stiff hair and Mad Men-style 1950s dresses becoming increasingly popular. The asymmetric hemlines on dresses indicated a similar confusion: are we optimistic about the economy or not? Who knows? The most politically sensitive moment happened at the 3.1 Philip Lim show when actress Elizabeth Banks, who plays Laura Bush in the upcoming Oliver Stone film W, was seated opposite the president’s daughter, Barbara. No wonder the fashion world’s confused.

Celebrity attention-seeking

Imagine you are a celebrity going to a fashion show. How to guarantee grabbing attention amid all your fellow celebrities? If you are Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez, you turn up to the Marc Jacobs show arm in arm. And if you are Beckham and want to make extra sure, you sport a new haircut. Bringing a dog was another favourite tactic, adopted by British model Daisy Lowe among others. The American fashion website, gofugyourself.com, was not impressed, demanding to know: “Seriously, what kind of ass brings a dog to a fashion show?” But perhaps recent New York arrival Peaches Geldof should have followed Lowe’s example: she was almost ignored by the paparazzi at the Preen show who were shockingly unaware of Geldof’s renown. Oprah Winfrey got attention for all the wrong reasons when her stylist told a reporter at one show his client has to wear “miracle clothes – whatever gives the slimmer look” and that some designers don’t lend her clothes because “they won’t do the clothes in her size”. Just for good measure, he added that she always needed “long or at least half sleeves”. And Winfrey pays money to this man?

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First Ladies and the Fabric of the Nation

nice Photos!

In Cindy McCain's first appearance at the Republican National
Convention, she wears a buttercup-yellow shirt dress with a flipped-up
collar by Seventh Avenue designer Oscar de la Renta. First lady Laura
Bush joins her in a cream-colored, embroidered de la Renta suit.

The season of political conventions ended Thursday in St. Paul, Minn., just as the spring 2009 fashion season was getting underway in New York. The convergence of politics and fashion brings together the substantive and the superficial, with neither industry having a monopoly on frivolousness and both relying on the power of appearances.

For fashion designers, the clothing styles of the two potential first ladies are of particular interest because they carry with them the possibility of launching trends or transforming once unknown brands into household names. Indeed, Michelle Obama has already given the Chicago-based designer Maria Pinto more of a national presence than her tasteful and minimal sheaths ever won on their own. And Obama helped New York’s Donna Ricco sell out a black-and-white sundress just by wearing it on “The View.”

As a country, we remain predisposed to assessing the attire of women with an eye toward meaning and revelation. Some might say it is sexist to do so. They are wrong.

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see the whole gallery…

Fashion politics,it´ s all about the shoes

So in case your may care,you should read this article

NEW YORK – John and Cindy McCain, and Barack and Michelle Obama are doing their best to put their best foot forward every day on the campaign trail. But are they doing it in the right shoes?
The shoe may not make the man, but it is an important part of his appearance, which is an important part of his image, which can influence voters. So we asked shoe expert (and shoe fanatic) Meghan Cleary as well as Details magazine fashion director Michael Macko to evaluate the footwear styles of the Obamas and McCains.

Barack Obama » has been seen out and about in four basic styles: polished black wing-tips, broken-in brown lace-ups, sneakers and flip-flops, Cleary says. He makes an effort to choose the right footwear for the right occasion.
”He knows when he needs to respect the pomp and circumstance – and for that he has the wing-tips – but a vacation is appropriate for flip-flops.”
Macko likes that Obama veers from the dark suit-dark shoe standard of most Washington insiders, but the brown lace-ups – while a good match for the khaki pant – look a little too beat up.
It appears from photos that Obama’s sneakers of choice are Asics, which is a brand favored by Midwesterners and runners. John Kerry’s sneakers in 2004 were New Balances, a brand with deep New England roots.

John McCain » consistently wears $520 Salvatore Ferragamo loafers that are brown with a metal buckle.
If his shoes have a long life, the price tag shouldn’t be a concern, Cleary says. Macko adds, ”I am a firm believer in there are certain things men should spend as much as they can on, and shoes are one of them.”
McCain has made a commitment to a style and made it part of his ”uniform,” following the footsteps of most men who don’t want to have to think too much about their wardrobes, Macko says. ”If you find something that works, stick with it.”
That said, Cleary, of MissMeghan.com, is bothered by the slip-on silhouette, which says to her that ”he wants to get up and go.”

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Obama the next doll of the fashion world?

well that could be true…

Obama: The next doll of the fashion world? (August 28, 2008)

Mayor Richard Daley has taken pains to try turning Chicago into a fashion town, hiring a fashion czar and setting up programs to keep fledgling designers from fleeing to the coasts.

But it could well be another famous politician, and his wife, who finally launch Chicago’s fashion industry into the national spotlight.

Though the presidential election is more than two months away, talk is swirling among fashionistas that Barack and Michelle Obama could bring a much-needed dose of excitement to how Americans dress and, in turn, recognition of the renaissance that is taking place in the Chicago fashion industry.

When Sen. Obama steps onto the stage in Denver on Thursday night to accept the Democratic nomination for president, he plans to wear a classic two-button, navy, merino wool and cashmere suit from Chicago-based Hartmarx Corp., the company said. The largest suitmaker in the U.S. has sold suits to Obama over the years and, at the presidential hopeful’s request, sent two tailors to his Kenwood home earlier this month to custom-make a suit for the historic speech.

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