By Michelle Malkin
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Talk about wearing your politics on your sleeve. An
elitist clique of fashion designers has banded together to raise money for
celebrity-in-chief Barack Obama and browbeat their customers into supporting
him. Even worse, the Beautiful People who dress the Powerful People are putting
increased pressure on conservatives to stay out of the business altogether.
Out: Haute couture. In: Hate couture.
In February, high-dollar bag-makers, cosmetics gurus, and
clothiers offered their services to help fill Obama’s campaign coffers. Nearly
two dozen gurus billed their enterprise as “Runway to Win: A Project by Fashion
Designers in Support of the Obama Victory Fund.” Campaign-finance experts
questioned whether employees of the corporate participants were truly “volunteering”
their time in accordance with federal law. But of course, no
Obama-administration lawyers have bothered to enforce the rules.
A “custom backpack” with the “Obama rising-sun logo”
designed by model Chanel Iman goes for $65. A teeny-tiny baby onesie with
“OBAMA” in bright red and blue letters goes for $65. A hideous Monique Pean
cotton and hemp scarf with Obama’s face splattered on it goes for $95. Diane
von Furstenberg pitched in two $85 tote bags and has grown more strident about
her partisan agenda as Election Day nears. At a fashion event in her New York
Meatpacking District store last month, she yelled at clients: “Everyone here
better be a Democrat; no Republicans!”
Furthermore, von Furstenberg vented: “This is not a
Republican party, just so you know! This is a non-Republican audience.” The
crowd cheered as she urged everyone to rush home to watch her Democratic idol’s
convention speech. But when conservative consumers protested on Twitter the
next few nights, von Furstenberg tweeted: “I love and respect all Americans . .
. Democrats and Republicans . . . love Diane.”
“All Americans,” except for Ann Romney, that is. When the
designer learned last week that the GOP candidate’s wife had worn one of her
famous wrap dresses at a recent campaign rally in Florida, the company had a
hissy fit. “We’re actually not quite sure how Ann obtained the dress,”
horrified public-relations staffers told left-wing Buzzfeed.
Accustomed to donating pieces to first lady Michelle
Obama and other favored lib celebs, von Furstenberg’s team couldn’t wrap their
heads around the idea that most women who are fortunate enough to afford their
products spend their own money to purchase them. She bought it? Mon dieu!
DVF Inc. then frantically distanced itself from Mrs.
Romney — and idiotically alienated half of American women.
While the president and first lady have ratcheted up
their class-warfare rhetoric against the Romneys, the Obama campaign has basked
in the 1-percent glow of fashionistas woefully out of touch with middle
America. British-born Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, a top Obama
campaign-finance bundler, is aggressively spearheading Runway to Win. She’s
held multiple million-dollar fundraisers for Obama in Hollywood, New York,
London, and Paris — and has raked in the fourth highest amount for the White
House.
In return, she snagged two coveted invitations to
fancy-schmancy White House State Dinners in January 2011 and March 2012.
Wintour’s $40,000-per-plate dinners are adorned with A-list celebs. She rubbed
her nose in hurting families’ faces by starring in a swanky campaign video
filmed at her tony townhouse — which was released the same day the Labor Department
released a miserable May unemployment report.
New Yorkers are now buzzing about Wintour intimidating
designers into spurning Republican women. “The fashion industry is
predominantly on the left,” fashion publicist Lee Everett of LaunchPad PR told
FoxNews.com, noting that “many brands and designers fear being associated with
the GOP.”
A political code of silence among conservatives in the
business is de rigueur. But Everett sensibly lamented the industry’s writing
off of “the other ‘50 percent’ of the country.” “For the sake of the fashion
industry, it should remain apolitical.”
Young New York City designer Bradley Scott also spoke up
against ideological “persecution” in his industry. “It’s really offensive for
me, as a designer, to be issued an unveiled threat by someone who could exert
an enormous amount of influence over my customers, store buyers, and magazine
editors,” he told me on Tuesday. “I for one want absolutely nothing to do with
this attack on women. This pressure upon designers should offend every woman in
this country, not just the conservatives.”
After four years of failed Hope and Change, Americans are
finally realizing that the emperor of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has no clothes.
After Election Day, the demagoguing Democratic doyennes of Seventh Avenue may
well find themselves out of style, too. Bigotry never wears well.
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