Palin(g) Closet Woes

Palin in a $2,500 Valentino jacket
Source: The Huffington Post

Palin in Asheville, North Carolina yesterday

Source: The Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5020818.ece

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Despite Americans' love of fashionable political icons (Jackie O. and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy come to mind), the public has recently reviled Sarah Palin's $150,000 designer wardrobe--and for good reason. It is not the designer labels, nor the smart dressing. And in another economic time, the cost would not have garnered such hostile reactions from the public and such vehement denials and justifications from Palin herself. It is the shameless whoring for votes from superficial means.

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By superficial, I do not mean "fashion" or "style"--Michelle Obama has clearly proven that style does not warrant a high price tag--but the naive, artless, and artificial attempts of some to attach a false and insincere sense of style to a woman who claims that she is just "a soccer mom." Palin is simply the mannequin that displays a political ideology. The clothes themselves are meaningless to her, and she wears her Valentino jacket as a "prop" rather than as a genuine expression of personal style.

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Truly fashionable political women, like the two I referenced above, dress the way they do out of a heartfelt, lifelong love affair with fashion and all it represents: individuality, expression, and panache. Their passion is what we are drawn to, not the cost per item. Palin is one who, oddly enough, looks the same in both her Valentino jacket and in her "own jeans"--she wears what she thinks defines her, as either a Vice-Presidential candidate or as a soccer mom. If she understood that style comes from within and not from some external marketing ploy, we'd be less incredulous of what we perceive as insincerity.