Via WWD on Palin’s $150,000 shopping spree:
Whichever pricy labels Palin has donned, she should not get too attached to them. “All of the clothes purchased by the RNC (not the campaign) will be donated,” campaign spokeswoman Marie Comella said in an e-mail. “The RNC purchased the items, continues to own them and will donate them at the conclusion of the campaign.” The campaign would not comment on exactly which charity will receive the designer duds. And retail and fashion industry executives generally were hiding in the bushes, declining to comment on the news.
W E L L … I don’t decline to comment. How come nobody asked me? Other than that I’m a nobody and if they knew I existed, they knew better -that is.
As someone who thinks pantyhose should be a justifiable business expense -wouldn’t wear them otherwise and even then, only upon pain of death- this is not a controversy requiring in-too-leck-chew-ul debate. The scandal of Palin’s wardrobe can be summed up with three single syllable words:
No Bust Darts.
Where are they chica? Haven’t you heard of an FBA? Tsk Tsk Tsk. Simply appalling and unacceptable. I enter these photos into evidence:
I’m wondering if Palin is a woman who has an egg shaped rib cage. If you have one, your bust is only discernible in relatively form fitting attire. Here’s two photos of her in which it appears the twins have run away from home. Oh, and in the photo on the right, judge by comparing the slope from her left shoulder, not the right. The right side is just floppy tee.
See? No boobs. She looks flat chested. Now I doubt that she’s wearing a John Wayne Bra in the other photos. Like any woman, she prefers tailored jackets for shaping. Women with egg shaped chests more so; one’s figure appears relatively shapeless, straight up and down with proportionately little differentiation between bust and waist otherwise. Rather an insult when compared to assets, no?
Note to Sarah: Honey, the girls deserve better treatment, it’s time to step up to custom clothing. Nobody cuts a fitted jacket to fit a full rack off the rack, kwim?
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Any takers on Palin’s bra size? My money says she’s a 32DD. I had a photo of her in a white blouse shaking hands with somebody that really showed the depth of her under bust but I can’t find it now.
It seems like she’s got a few jackets with princess seams and those are much more flattering in general.
“Nobody cuts a fitted jacket to fit a full rack off the rack”
Clever… I can see my smarta$$ nature is encouraging yours to come out >:-)
It’s another tempest in a teapot. C’mon -can’t we talk the actual ISSUES and how they affect lean manufacturers? The readers here are SMART and have actual opinions. I personally don’t care how Palin dresses -or only in so far as it affects the market for dresses, and I don’t think she’s a style icon.
Are there links involved with the things that you’ve underlined? I think an FBA is a full-bust alteration? “If you have one, your bust is only discernible in relatively form fitting attire.” Are there bust shapes where your bust is visible even in loose clothing?
What is a John Wayne Bra?
If you ever do an article about sports bras, well, my 38Ds would thank you.
If Palin has a history with pageants, and has spent 150K on clothing, how does she NOT know what bust darts are?
“No Bust Darts.”
I think this is where the ubiquitous T-shirt culture has taken us. Everything seems to be cut from the same Dartless Sloper. Which pattern book was I reading that stated the Dartless Sloper is the hardest one to get to fit properly? Yet far too many women’s clothes have no darts, no shaping, no nothing, and fit like cr*p. Might as well cut a couple of holes in a sack and pull it over our heads, it would have the same stylish effect.
That pic of her in the peach and black number above, could that have been when she was breast-feeding child #5? No way are those the same boobs we see under the army fatigues.
And what’s the scoop with that red leather jacket she’s been seen in lately? Its too big, isn’t it? I say the GOP can spend whatever they want on her wardrobe, but can’t it at least be the right size?
Are there links involved with the things that you’ve underlined?
No links, explanations. Rest your mouse on those underlines and a text box pops up.
Libbet: Political discussions can get pretty messy and I think it is best the site remain secular and politically centered. Scratch that, some people think secular is left wing. Whatever. If the candidates proposed policies will have an affect on lean manufacturing and thus be topical, I wasn’t aware of it.
I very nearly clicked off here last night when I started to read the post, but when I got to the part about the No Bust Darts issue, I was quite amused. In this economical climate, levity is the one thing with which everyone should be able to relate.
At last — a blog that addresses the *real* issues of the campaign! Whatever office you decide to run for, you have my vote for sure!!! (And just think what we could *SEW* with that budget!)
I think it’s about time someone (besides us) noticed that RTW seems to think all women are about a B-cup. I thought that maybe when enough women got implants, they’d finally have to make clothing to fit them and the rest of us who are DDD naturally, but NO, I think they like the “falling out of it” look since it draws attention to their ‘assets’. Whatever, but I’m glad I sew and can do an FBA when I need one. I doubt most people notice her ill-fitting jackets since that’s the look one usually sees. When someone has well-fitting clothing it’s the exception rather than the rule in most cases.
I was just going to post on my own blog about that red leather jacket. It’s unbelievable that anybody thought it fits good. They certainly could have done a lot more with a lot less and maybe even kept some local talent busy.
I had to laugh when I saw “Steinilauf and Stroller” mentioned online everywhere the as a kid’s purveyor the RNC purchased from, and sure enough this AM Steinlauf and Stoller gets a great little write up in the NYT as the excellent notions supplier they really are…
The Anchorage Daily News has a nice photo selection of her under the heading ‘fashion style as governor,’ so you can see the pre-Saks grooming outfits. And Kathleen is right, not a bust dart is sight :)
I learned yesterday that each of the pant suits held in front of the camera to decide which color Hillary should wear to give her speech and the Dem Convention cost $6-$7,000. In those that I see her wear, the biceps need extra room and the length/shape of the jackets make her hips look w-i-d-e. Who tells some of these ladies this ‘expensive’ stuff makes them look good?
Look, nobody is more cynical than me about politics, but even I understand the amount of money spent on this stuff. We live in a world where every campaign photo op is going to be shown nearly continuously for 72 hours and then archived away into a rather impressive database. It’s a-whole-nother level of scrutiny that these people are under, one that very few of us will ever know. So spending $6k-7k for this, or $150k for that is not surprising and you would do it, too. Which is why it was not the point of Kathleen’s entry (she has mentioned this idea of pantyhose being a business deduction to me before).
Let me put it this way (because I just sat through a presentation on it this week): when the Lewinsky news broke, one network found that clip of Monica in the beret talking to Bill on the White House lawn somewhere in their archives. They leased that out to the other networks and made millions on it. Every other network then realized the value of the intellectual property they were sitting on and went to the trouble to digitize all of their old film and analog coverage, complete with metadata tags (keywords) derived from observation of the images plus automated analysis of the voiceover, etc. The result was seen last year when Jim McKay died and within a few minutes they were pulling up his first broadcast and that clip from the ’72 Olympics when he said “They’re all gone.” Even the NBA has spent millions digitizing and tagging their games, so whenever someone makes a three-point shot in the 3rd Quarter of Game 3 of the Western playoffs, they can pull up footage of Magic Johnson doing the same thing in 1984 (or whatever) before the 4th Q even starts.
So you’re dealing with two problems: ubiquity and forever. Now, imagine that you are going to jump into that limelight. Still wanna be caught wearing something cheap, ill-fitting, the wrong color? No, you want to wear something that doesn’t distract from the carefully orchestrated message. Male politicians in that regard can always resort to very, very conservative suits; women have the much more difficult job of having to shoot the gap between feminine and “serious”, and they must do it without appearing to be trying to do it. You don’t have to approve of the person to understand the pressure and scrutiny they are under, D or R.
What I don’t get is… if I were paying $5k for an outfit, it would be custom. Those conservative men’s suits? They’re expensive and they fit. The womenswear doesn’t fit. I don’t get it.
I am not at all shocked that they spent the amount of money they did on her. I simply am surprised that they didn’t get clothing that fits. I am sure they could have found someone to alter things quickly for her, but it looks as if they never even tried. It’s just off the rack and onto the woman, and if it doesn’t fall off or cut off the oxygen supply, the fit is good enough. As several have said, the men get their clothing tailored without a second thought, Cindy McCain reportedly buys custom, as does Michelle Obama. They don’t always wear the most flattering things either, IMO, but at least they generally fit.
I have to wonder if the shoppers/stylists/whatever that they used for this aren’t used to dressing anyone with a very shapely figure, ie, boobs. Alternatively, they may think they’re downplaying her bust to make her look more ‘serious’, but all they’re doing is making it more obvious because one’s eye is drawn to the obviously straining fabric. Or maybe they want her to look ‘sexier’ as part of their plan, and they think this is the way to do it. Who knows?
I think they should make a point of the fact that they’re buying American or whatever. As someone pointed out, they could be doing some small businesspersons a big favor by using them to tailor these garments to fit, or make her some things that really would fit. That would be a more heartwarming story than so many bucks to Saks, Nieman Marcus, etc., and isn’t that what they want?
Eric, thank you for your explanation.
My question: Doesn’t it seem like women under constant scrutiny need to have a never-ending supply of garments so that they don’t appear to wear the same things over and over, while men can simply change shirt/tie?
Regarding fit, I agree. For that amount of money, they should have done better. But in a world where the monobutt looks good too people, maybe we’re too optimistic?
On the other hand, if they had done better at “getting the girls out there”, then people would be looking at whether she was too sexy. There is just no way for women in the public eye to satisfy everyone.
Pelosi and Boxer: “She looks too old” vs “Plastic surgery?”
Hillary: “She looks too frumpy” vs “What’s with the cleavage?”
vs
Men: “He should have gone with the red tie” vs “He should have gone with the blue tie”
There just isn’t as much underlying controversy (and, we’re basically expected to be fashion-blind).
I think for the money they spent they should have bought fewer things and had them custom tailored….at least the stuff for her upper half.
Is there a possibility that the extra fabric throughout the chest is concealing protective clothing such as a bullet-proof vest?
I would dearly love to have custom made clothing. I’d much rather spend my clothing dollars with a local seamstress than at the department stores. How do I find a talented dressmaker in Oklahoma? (I’ve googled and googled to no real avail ….)