Mama’s got a brand-new bag
Some folks got their Fruits of the Loom in a knot when word got out that Michelle Obama was carrying a $5950 alligator clutch from VBH. Given Mrs O’s occasionally-eccentric fashion sense, I was tempted to admire her level of restraint: this is not an overwrought, overstyled piece. And it wasn’t the First Lady who was bragging on it: ’twas VBH their own selves.
Apparently there was enough umbrage taken to spur VBH to backpedal, and the White House issued a tonedeaf response to the effect that it’s not in fact the six-grand VBH purse, but a lesser patent-leather bag retailing for a mere $875.
They might have been better off leaving it alone. The whole “What kind of example is being set?” question rubs me the wrong way: what kind of person looks to politicians, lately one of the more unsavory subsets of humanity, to set an example, fercrissake? I’d object most strenuously were they to tell me how to spend my money — I already object to several ways they spend my money — and I don’t feel compelled to tell them how to spend theirs.
McGehee »
11 July 2009 · 9:12 am
The standard reply would probably include references to politicians being able to vote themselves raises, though technically the President doesn’t have that power and, not technically, neither does the First Lady.
But where valid, the argument may be worth a grudging shrug.
CGHill »
11 July 2009 · 9:17 am
That’s a matter, though, not of spending their money, but of obtaining more of my money to spend.
Lisa Paul »
11 July 2009 · 10:59 am
And her more vocal critics are always harping that she dresses “cheaply” out of catalogs. So she goes all high-end couture on them and they don’t like it. Sheesh, no one got all over Nancy Reagan’s case for her designer duds or Laura Bush for her custom made Fairclough suits.
Speaking as one who, on a doctor’s advice, only carries backpacks (once I made the switch it cleared up all neck pain), I’m still tolerant of the huge amount of money some women like to lavish on purses and shoes. As one friend said, “No matter how much weight you gain or what time of the month it is, they ALWAYS fit.”
McGehee »
11 July 2009 · 1:51 pm
I’ll just say that I remember things just a little differently, at least WRT Nancy Reagan. Though it may be partly because I was in college during Reagan’s first term, and also partly because the newspaper I read, despite being the moer conservative of Sacramento’s two, also printed some slightly-beyond-liberal columnists.
By the time of, say, Grenada, of course, they were less lathered about Nancy’s wardrobe than about Ron’s Cold War policies. Heh.
McGehee »
11 July 2009 · 1:53 pm
And when a politician has spent unwisely, how many options does he ever consider in how to address the resulting red ink?
Spend less? Bite your tongue!