What Sarah Wore

With Sarah Palin bursting back into the national consciousness... again!...there's been a lot of talk about the former VP candidate. Amidst all this gossip and she-said/he-said, the only interesting bit of real news this week was an article in today's TIMES which explores in fascinating detail her infamous wardrobe.

In an article titled, "Only Palin's Stylist Knows For Sure" reporter Lauren Lipton interviews the mysterious corporate stylist who created Palin's look. Until now, her identity has been hidden...even in Sarah's new book, the woman's name was left out. Now she is revealed to be Lisa Kline, a 47 year old Manhattan woman who styles female executives and news anchors for a living.

Kline got the call to style Sarah on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day setting in motion a frenzied three-day shopping spree to dress up the Republican's second-lady in waiting. Then, arriving in Minneapolis for the convention, the GOP realized that the whole Palin family needed a makeover, which lead to a 7am tear through Neiman's to outfit the 8 Alaskans for their convention appearance. From a production standpoint, this woman did a remarkable job as, no matter what you think of Sarah and her clan, they looked good! And the price tag of $150K was due mainly to the huge last minute rush involved as it was a holiday weekend and Kline, who often works directly with designers, had to go retail.

Anyway, this is an interesting story-behind-the-story narrative of an event that some people think now cost the John McCain the White House. I think that may be pushing it a little. Afterall, there were a few things Ms. Palin said that spoke a little louder than her designer duds.