Palin makes a fashion statement, as well
Fashion companies have discovered a lucrative new marketing vehicle: Sarah Palin.
Since John McCain chose her last month as his running mate, Gov. Palin's personal style has sparked a buying frenzy. Many women are snapping up her choices of shoes and eyeglasses and blogging about which brand of lipstick she wears. Hairstylists and wig sellers report sudden demand for her trademark up-dos. Indeed, the brands behind Palin's fashion taste have gone into overdrive seeking to cash in on the association.
Fashion firms have long boasted when celebrities and first ladies wore their clothing and accessories. Jacqueline Kennedy lent cachet to Oleg Cassini gowns and Halston pillbox hats during the 1960s. This year, the sight of Michelle Obama in a $148 black-and-white dress on ABC's "The View" in June helped popularize the White House/Black Market brand. But the prospect of having a national candidate who is a former beauty queen and in the news every day is even better for business, many fashion companies say.
Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, declined to comment on any aspect of the governor's personal style.
Jay Randhawa, a brand director at House of Brands Inc. in San Diego, says he was surprised to learn that Palin was introduced as McCain's vice-presidential choice wearing a red pair of peep-toe pumps with 3-inch heels. The shoes, marketed by his company's Naughty Monkey line, generally are geared to women in their early to mid-20s who go clubbing, he says.
"The age bracket we target is a little younger. It's a very edgy, very hip, very street brand," adds Randhawa.
Celebrities like Paris Hilton had been photographed in the brand's shoes, but seldom, if ever, a 40-something politician.
Randhawa says he realized that Palin's footwear choice offered the chance to pitch the Naughty Monkey line to a new demographic. The company quickly sent out emails to its retailers with a photo of the Alaska governor wearing the shoes and the slogan "I vote for Naughty Monkey!"
At Amazon.com Inc.'s Endless.com shoe unit, sales of the red Naughty Monkey shoes shot up 50 percent, to thousands of pairs, says Randhawa.
Palin's eyeglasses - rimless $375 frames made by Kazuo Kawasaki (style series 704, color 34) - are on back order, says Amy Hahn, vice president of Italee Optics Inc., the brand's U.S. distributor. To keep up with orders, which have more than quadrupled since the Republican National Convention, manufacturing has shifted to a 24-hour production cycle, Hahn says.
Italee executives say they sensed a possible business opportunity when Palin donned the glasses for her formal introduction as McCain's running mate. Spotting the familiar frames, Italee executives dug through their records until they confirmed that the company handled Palin's order for the custom frames in December, Hahn says.
"But the turning point was at the convention," she says. "The next day, our phone started ringing off the hook. Now we're doing everything we can to keep up."
John Barrett, whose salon sits in the penthouse of tony New York retailer Bergdorf Goodman, says that in the past week he has given five clients the loosely tied-back hairstyle Palin wore during the convention. "People are requesting it - it shows off the cheekbones," says Barrett. "I can't emphasize enough how her angled bangs and hair color are so beautifully executed."
Online detectives, meanwhile, continue debating which lipstick brand Palin wore during her convention speech. And the Web site of beauty magazine Allure suggests "Pitbull-friendly" and "Pig Appropriate" colors to try, alluding to Palin's joking comparison of herself to a lipstick-wearing pitbull and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's reference to McCain's economic policy as "lipstick on a pig."
In her home state, retailers are looking to capitalize on the governor's patronage. Just before she was offered the nomination, Palin went shopping at Out of the Closet, an Anchorage-based secondhand store, with her 14-year-old daughter Willow and her infant son Trig. She picked up a Juicy Couture coat for Willow and a tweed blazer for herself by Escada, which is one of her favorite labels, a saleswoman says.
On Sept. 1, the store posted an item on its blog: "Finally, we are thrilled that our favorite Governor is making such a name for herself on the national stage! Go Girl! We love seeing you in your Out of the Closet duds!"
Shoefly + Hudsons, the Juneau boutique where Palin bought the Naughty Monkey heels, has the shoes prominently displayed on its Web site declaring: "First Stop: Shoefly + Hudsons, Second Stop: Run for Vice President of the U.S.?"