Karin Tanabe is Managing Editor for Washington Life Magazine. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Houston Chronicle, The Sunday Independent and the Gulf News. She once worked for the King of Belgium and is adept at ordering a sandwich in Flemish.

Her blog, www.nakedthanks.com is where she's attempting to write 365 bare-boned tell-all smutty thank yous in an attempt to become a more appreciative human being. Her own father called it "hilarious...but disgusting."

A Vassar College grad, where she was able to fuel her Jackie Kennedy obsession, Karin never wore flats to class. Not once, not even in the snow. She takes the same mentality to the streets of DC where she is waiting with bated breath for the fashion revitalization of the capital city.


Blog Entries by Karin Tanabe

Magazines, Magazines, Oh Where Have You Gone?

18 Comments | Posted November 18, 2009 | 10:21 AM (EST)


2009-11-17-playgirl3.jpg

First Playgirl, published since 1973 (c'mon ladies, support a good cause!), got the ax. Then CosmoGirl, Men's Vogue, Domino, Hallmark Magazine, Portfolio, Vibe, Southern Accents, Cookie, Gourmet, and, most recently, Metropolitan Home. No naked men, no southern chintz, and no minimalist interiors so white...

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In the Know: Scandalous Political Affairs

6 Comments | Posted September 10, 2009 | 04:24 PM (EST)


I know whose bare buttocks have landed on the mahogany desks of certain married congressmen; I've rubbed elbows with high-ranking Hill staffers with porn and prostitute addictions; I've clinked glasses with a girl who wore nothing but rain boots under the Capitol's cavernous dome. In short, I've seen political...

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The Seven Unsung Heroes of Washington Fashion

21 Comments | Posted September 1, 2009 | 07:52 AM (EST)


"Welcome to Washington, Hollywood for ugly people!" The fabled moniker held tried and true through Jimmy Carter cardigans and George W. Bush suits and cowboy boots. Then all of a sudden fashion plate Michelle Obama and her well-dressed entourage came to town and Washingtonians aren't likened to burlap-clad trolls anymore....

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The Things Men Wear Under There

6 Comments | Posted August 5, 2009 | 12:08 PM (EST)


"They just need to be tighter... and shorter... and maybe a brighter color," I told my underpants-clad man-friend as he moved around my room like conveyor belt sushi. A diehard fan of baggy gray boxer-briefs, I was hoping to convert my bedmate into a sexy skivvy wearer. After all, he...

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Political Fashion Smackdown! (PHOTOS, POLL)

164 Comments | Posted June 20, 2009 | 12:30 AM (EST)


It's finally here! The glamazons of government are going head-to-head in the ultimate political fashion smackdown. Sure these friends and frenemies are all smiles when gracing the pages of Vogue and GQ, but how would they pair up in the ring? Who would win a Zoolander-esque walk off? Joe Biden,...

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Why Washington Loves Flats

Posted March 17, 2009 | 10:39 AM (EST)


America has gone hog wild for Michelle Obama's flat shoes. With all the hoopla you'd think she'd sprouted wings out of her ballerinas like Hermes. Have Americans never seen a flat before?

It may be surprising, or admirable, to some that our first lady is greeting dignitaries in a...

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Thanks for the Booty, Barack!

Posted January 30, 2009 | 05:00 PM (EST)


WASHINGTON-You're both Obamaphiles with working sexual organs. Washington's so cold it feels like Wasilla. A little body heat sounds awfully nice and are those official inaugural ball tickets I see? What's a modern Democrat to do?

Copulate.

Do it for your country! Do it for Obama! Do it...

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Inauguration Style on the National Mall

Posted January 23, 2009 | 10:06 AM (EST)


President Obama looked dignified in a black overcoat and thick burgundy tie. Michelle Obama wore tailored layers of butter cream. The adorable first daughters were chic in J.Crew. And the two million people who gathered on the Mall were gussied up in clothing fit for arctic exploration.

The hot accessory...

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What Not To Wear To The Inauguration

Posted January 14, 2009 | 08:46 AM (EST)


What to wear to the momentous inauguration of our 44th president? Sure, it's one of the most historic days in the chronicle of our great nation and a sizable slice of our country is more excited about this than they were about their own weddings, but no pressure at all!...

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It's Not Just Palin in Designer Duds

Posted October 31, 2008 | 04:26 PM (EST)


"I would have to wear sable underwear," fashion plate Jackie Kennedy pooh-poohed when the good 'ol liberal media accused her of spending $30,000 on clothes a year, most of them made by those nimble fingered frogs across the pond.

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After Palin's wardrobegate '08,...

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Palin and McCain: Dressing for Joe Six-Pack

Posted October 11, 2008 | 02:31 PM (EST)


We all put our pants on one leg at a time. But when you're running for public office, there's a whole lot of thinking about which pair of pants you're putting on.

David Brooks' recent New York Times Op-Ed column, The Class War Before Palin, hit home what...

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Cindy McCain Wears Clown Suit/Pantsuit To Debate

Posted September 27, 2008 | 01:17 PM (EST)


Has Cindy McCain been playing in Hillary's pantsuit depot again? For the first of her husband's debates against Barack Obama, Cindy "the human tomato" McCain decided to outfit herself in a pantsuit that looked more like a four-year-old's romper than the attire of a professional woman.

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What If: A Fashion Nightmare With VP Sarah Palin

Posted September 19, 2008 | 10:25 PM (EST)


"Fashion in Alaska means your fur hat is dead." Yet somehow Bouffant Barbie has convinced America that she's a fashion sensation and will pile her dogsled with suitcases full of femininity as she skids into the land of the badly buttoned, Capitol Hill.

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Is Pole Dancing Fashion Week-Worthy or a Depraved Activity?

Posted September 7, 2008 | 07:09 PM (EST)


Despite the buckets of Botox in the faces of the fashion week rabble, you can always count on rows of very raised eyebrows as designers try to out wow each other in this era of blasé bystanders. There was Fendi's Great Wall of China show, Marc Jacobs showing his '07...

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'Glamish': Why Does Fall Fashion Have Us Buttoned Up Like The Pennsylvania Dutch?

Posted August 31, 2008 | 08:39 AM (EST)


The economy is in dire straits. The mortgage crisis is a crisis. We're a nation at war. You would think we might hope to cheer each other up by wearing clothes that screamed, "my subprime mortgage has me putting needles in my eyes but my colorful outfits and angular necklines...

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What Not To Wear To The Democratic Convention

Posted August 22, 2008 | 07:33 AM (EST)


It's about that time again. Political fashion week is kicking off in Colorado on Monday with the Democratic Party's super models strutting in their red, white and blue. The theme I'm expecting from this year's event is "quiet patriotism." My fingers are crossed that no one decides to show a...

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How Modern Technology Ruined My Favorite Spectator Sport

Posted August 11, 2008 | 03:42 PM (EST)


It's called the Speedo LZR Racer. Credited with dozens of world records, it's not sewn but welded together, was engineered by NASA, produces 38% less hydrodynamic drag than a normal bathing suit, covers from ankle to neck and has all but ruined my favorite spectator sport since I could say...

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The Great Pantsuit Problem (And What To Do About It)

Posted August 4, 2008 | 06:00 AM (EST)


In the August issue of Harper's Bazaar, the magazine asks:

Harper's Bazaar: How many pantsuits do you have?

Nancy Pelosi: I don't have any idea. Endless.

It didn't bother me at first. Just a typical question to ask a Washington woman. And then it began to haunt me,...

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