A Class Analysis of Palin’s Classy New Clothes

Posted by Sue Katz, Consenting Adult at 10:50 AM on October 27, 2008.

Let me be clear off the top that all talk of Sarah Palin's (rather gorgeous) wardrobe is a diversion from what really counts: stuff like her position against choice, her ignorance of world politics and her intermittent allergy to the truth. But I can't say I feel at one with those making such a hoopla around her new duds. Pundits are saying that it is an image error. After all, they point out, she's the average hockey mom, the local small-town girl, the one who has pulled herself up from little privilege to the national stage. Fancy-schmancy clothes from Neiman-Marcus, commentators are saying, contradict this picture of the working class gal made good.

I don't agree.

When I was growing up, I wore three-year-old hand-me-downs from Anne, the daughter of one of my mother's friends. Three years is bad timing. You can't pass it off as this year's or even last year's style. And it's not old enough to call it retro. No, three-year-old fashion means only one thing: used clothes.

Any poor or working class woman of my generation remembers what it felt like to have their look determined by the taste and resources of an older sister or cousin. It sucked. The first focus of my college education when I left Pittsburgh at 17 on a full scholarship to go to a big city university was getting my hands on some clothes. I arrived in a navy blue stitched-down pleated skirt and black turtleneck while my dorm-mates were wearing matching floral-print PVC mini-skirts and go-go boots.

My hunger for clothes has never waned and I bet Sarah Palin feels the same. I imagine that these gorgeous new items from high-tone retailers paid for by others are as much a high as the cheering crowds. As someone pointed out, she wore fleece in her last campaign. Once word of nearly $150,000 spent on her garb (and bits and pieces for Trig and perhaps the First Dude) hit the news, Palin must have been gutted by the campaign's defensive announcement that after November the clothes would be donated to charity. She may not have realized that if she kept the stuff she'd have to pay income taxes on that $150,000.

This lavish wardrobe was not, I suspect, of Palin's own doing. It's not like she's been out cruising the malls for bargains. She was probably given a couple of catalogs, a buyer to consult with and encouragement to look her best. She is unlikely to know about campaign finance rules and regulations about tarting up the old closet. (It's okay that the Republican National Committee paid for them and a good thing the campaign didn't.) The woman's in the lens most hours of the day. She wants to look super-eye-popping to a degree that Joe Biden most likely can't match.

Palin has clearly adjusted to a new level of fashion. The costume designer on Saturday Night Live, where Palin appeared, "revealed the struggle he had in dressing Sarah Palin: she wanted to wear nicer clothes than they had picked out for her, reflecting the new image she has carefully constructed on the campaign trail." Apparently the red outfit chosen for Tina Fey when she started impersonating Palin a month ago, was just too "month ago" for Palin.

Of course once people start looking into this stuff, it snowballs. It turns out that Palin is applying more than just a touch of lipstick. The New York Times reports that, "Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show 'So You Think You Can Dance?', was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records." Now, I'm very curious if this is the same make-up artist who was paid over $5,500 to do McCain's debate make-up. I reported on this in my book Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin.

All this criticism is not sliding off Palin's silk-covered back. In fact, Governor Palin now denies that she's received such an expensive load of threads. In an interview in the Chicago Tribute she insisted that the clothes aren't worth that much (The NYTimes gives the details in this article.).

Palin protested "That whole thing is just, bad!... Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are."

I for one do know how frugal Sarah Palin has been. She was frugal when it came to paying for the rape kits of victims in Wasilla and when women's shelters asked for resources. She's been frugal with her attention to the environment, to sex education for young people, to women's right to choose and to world affairs. Yes, indeedy. Finally Sarah Palin and I can agree: she's been damned frugal.

Tagged as: clothes, 000, palin, $150

Author, journalist and blogger Sue Katz has lived, worked and published journalism on three continents. She used to be most proud of her martial arts career and her world travel, but now it is all about her blog Consenting Adult and her new book Thanks But No Thanks: A Voter's Guide to Sarah Palin.