Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin may be inspiring voters, but more surprisingly they are also inspiring retail sales. When Obama appeared on The View this June in a $148 dress from White House/Black Market she created an overnight shopping frenzy that helped the company move 2000 units. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as running mate set off a rush on look-alike wigs, Naughty Monkey peep-toe pumps, and rimless $375 eyeglasses by Kazuo Kawaski.
While some pundits sneer at American women for being superficial enough to care what a political woman might wear, and even worse, to run out to copy it, I say this is good news. Not only is fashion one of the largest industries--and employers--in the U.S., but whose style we choose to emulate tells us something positive about where we are as a society.
Let me explain. As a writer for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue back in the '80s, I was taught that the only people in the world with real style were designers; they gave their Sermons on the Mount each season and women obeyed. Skirts soared thigh high one year, sank to the ankles the next.
Then came the rise of The Supermodel. Designers were out and women began to follow the jeans-and-Chanel-jacket casualness of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista. When Evangelista bobbed her waist-length hair, a million scissors snipped frantically around the country. And when those walking clothes-hangers morphed into little Napoleons who declared they wouldn't get out of bed for less than several thousand dollars, we turned our attention to celebrities--allowing Britney's belly-baring T-shirts and whatever handbag Paris Hilton happened to fling across her arm to set the trends. Entire industries sprang up to chronicle every breath of celebrity style and sell it back to us, as clever designers and their product-placing stylists figured out how to seed the celebrities with so many designer items that by now practically no trace of the stars' own personal style remains. And just when you think it can't get any more vapid, Hollywood's leading dresser, stylist Rachel Zoe, becomes a celebrity herself, commanding a reality T.V. show and her own line of handbags.
Into this personal-style vacuum step....Obama and Palin. What's interesting is that instead of idolizing a pre-pubescent like Miley Cyrus, for once we're focused on two women of style and substance who are both over 40 and unabashed about it. Not only is the 40-plus set a growing demographic (so far, no one seems to be getting younger), but it's also one that's been too long ignored. I can't tell you how many More readers write in to say that they feel "invisible" to marketers and designers worldwide. But Palin and Obama are very visible. They look great and at the same time age-appropriate. They give a certain set of women who feel disenfranchised something to hope for. And they are not (yet ) driven by the designer industrial complex. Like them or hate them, Obama and Palin signal the rise of something new: the real and authentic.