Fashionistas turn Recessionistas

"This is a bit ridiculous."
"This, Madame, is Versailles." -Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette had three palace rooms devoted entirely to housing her wardrobe. During a time when the French didn't have enough money to buy flour to make bread, she was still sporting her signature hairsyle, the pouf, which stood three feet tall and was covered in flour.

While the people of France were starving and cold, she was disposing of her entire wardrobe (all three rooms full!) at the end of each season, and buying a new one-- all on their tax dollar.
And while Sarah Palin might not be crying, "let them eat cake," she did recently receive criticism for her September shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. The outing produced a brand new wardrobe for Palin and amounted to a fee of $150,000, which the Republican National Committee funded.

Of course there are a number of women who frequently manage to ring up such a bill (especially at Saks and Neiman Marcus).

But just because the rest of Versailles was doing it, didn't mean Marie Antoinette should do it. She was supposed to be leading the elite and showing compassion toward her people. So should Palin be spending $150,000 on her clothing when there are people who's homes, some of which are less than $150,000 are being foreclosed?

Personally, I'd rather watch a well-dressed candidate speak than a poorly dressed one (judge me). And although I admit that I am often drawn to labels (judge me again) maybe Palin should have considered the economy before running to Neiman Marcus.

I'm not saying she needs to replace Saks for Sears or anything. However, she could consider following in the footsteps of the transformed fashionistas, the recessionistas. These women admit that they love Isaac Mizrahi's newest line. But, they also like to shop. Therefore, instead of buying his line at Saks, they're going to buy his line- for Target.

So, as opposed to being able to buy one purse at full price, they can buy the entire collection from Target.

Of course, if you're spending just as much, it might not really be that much of a save (the ever-burning question: quantity v. quality. Will we ever know?).

I don't really know if Palin would have seemed less guilty if she bought everything from the Women's section at Target, as opposed to buying her favorites at Saks.

Besides, maybe Neiman's promised her that if the could outfit her for the campaign, they'd all support the Republican party...(this would bring a whole new slew of controversy, I'd imagine).

In the end, I guess Palin decided to remain a fashionista, and steer clear of the new, and oh-so-enticing trend: Recession Chic. She just must be one of those women that really believes you pay for what you get.

Sure, she might be criticized for saying a few dumb things and spending a couple extra dollars, but as far as I've heard, she hasn't told anyone to eat cake just yet.