Clothes as Politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/12/16/DI2007121601778.html (from today's Washington Post)

I have always been interested in the way people dress for what it says about the person. I read fashion magazines as a child.

Clothes have a long psychological and political history that this columnist for the DCPost continues, and she does it well.

I would love to write a column about the Bay Area’s political dress. I would go to political events and check out the leading pols’ clothes and write about them in painful detail. I would be mean if it made the comment more satirical.

Every politician in the Bay Area and the political types would read this column first thing. I guarantee it.

My old publisher boss Patrick would never have such a column even though it would add many readers to La Gaceta. He is at heart chivalric and loathe to hurt people’s feelings. With all the damage they do to a community, politicians’ feelings should be hurt-- and often.

I would do a first column on the dress of the school board. Its fashion display is a hoot. Maybe I should blog about this aspect of the board’s persona. I must include Ms. Elia. For all the money she pulls out of the taxpayers, she is a fashion wreck and wears a mullet hair style to boot.

I judge Palin’s dress to be one of her best aspects. And I think her retro hair style invokes an old-fashioned sense of style that is to her advantage. It suggests she is an old-fashioned girl with old-fashioned values. This is a false signal, but it is there in her dress. She has a knockout figure, but she does not emphasize it in her dress, which shows eminent good sense.

The positive reaction of the men to her that exceeds that of the women comes from this wonderful figure of hers, and the women’s less positive reaction to her shows their inchoate knowledge that she represents a dangerous competitive element in the political environment.

Now if she only had more brains about the world, she could be a winner.

I can’t wait to see what Palin wears for the debate Thursday night.

I thought Hillary’s pant suits in vivid colors were perfect for her. They hid her fire-hydrant legs and emphasized her pretty face. Those pant suits were tailored and used elegant fabrics--most often wool gaberdine--and cost a fortune. They were not Wal-Mart. They were high-fashion in origin. I would love to know the designer of those Hillary pant suits for I am sure a designer did them. lee