Fashion Politics

All the broo-haha over the “value” of Cindy McCain’s convention outfit (estimated at $313,000) is rubbish. Now I love Vanity Fair, but they know better than anyone about the difference between estimating what something is currently worth vs. not only what it actually cost but also what the wealthy actually have to pay for these items. First off, other than the watch and the de la Renta dress (which Vanity Fair absolutely would have known a solid estimate of the price of), there is no factual numbers associated with any of the items. The 3-carat diamond earrings are estimated to cost—right now—approximately $280K, but there’s no information about the designer, the distributor, or how she obtained them. She could have gotten them at an auction (oh, even a charity auction). Same with the pearls. Take those two off the table, and the outfit’s value is dramatically reduced to $8,100. While they were able to identify Laura Bush’s as Stuart Weitzman’s, Cindy McCain’s are unidentified and estimated to be $600. Which is a good estimate for average designer shoes. My guess is that, given she’s wearing de la Renta, she probably has some high end shoe tastes. But all in all, neither she nor Laura Bush probably paid retail prices for the dresses as designers do like having high profile people strut their clothes across national television.

I don’t like the McCains anymore than VF does, but can we leave fashion out of our politics? It’s really unfair given that Michelle Obama isn’t getting the same critique. Quick searches shows her preferred designer (and the one who did her convention speech dress) is Maria Pinto who retails at Saks and Barney’s (quick search didn’t produce a price for a Maria Pinto dress, but a simple wool top is $95) as well as accessorizes with Alaia. Now I can’t price out all her accessories, but I do know Alaia shoes usually retail for at least $1,000. So let’s stop blowing Cindy McCain out of proportion for earrings that we can’t even confirm cost that much or are even real (the disclaimer in the VF piece says “All prices except Laura’s shoes and Cindy’s watch are estimates, and the jewelry prices are based on the assumption that the pieces are real.”)

I’m just happy, since I have to look at them for the next two months, that they’re all at least fashionable. Laura’s bored me to tears for 8 years and Condi stopped wearing the cool boots.

Speaking of cool shoes, Manolo Blahniks fall collection has me drooling. Almost--just almost--makes me want to start job hunting.