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A friend of mine just directed my attention to the cover of the most recent J. Crew catalog... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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Sweet Sammi, these two girls are already America's sweethearts, and there is not a kid over 5 years old in this country who can't tell you which one of the president's daughters he or she likes best. J. Crew and the makers of Ty Girlz dolls are not the only retailers to take advantage of that. The commercialization of Sasha’s and Malia’s adorableness started the moment their dad was elected. The manufacturers of the dresses the girls wore to Grant Park instantly exploited the connection. I'm surprised www.sashaandmalia.com is not a Web domain for some savvy marketer yet. The Obamas cannot keep their daughters’ popularity in a bottle, and I don't know what their mother will do to protect them. Now that former White House cute kid Caroline Kennedy has an opening in her schedule, maybe she can come help Michelle Obama figure that out.
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The NYT Style section has a short piece on the puzzling lack of shoppers who showed up for a free makeup giveaway that took place Tuesday at hundreds of department stores nationwide in fulfillment of a class action settlement on cosmetics price-fixing. The article suggests that perhaps lack of selection in the gratis goods was the reason for the poor turnout, but, darling Style section, have you glanced over at the old Business section lately? Beggars can't be choosers. I wonder if low turnout had more to do with the fact that the giveaway coincided with the inauguration, a juggernaut of an event that cast a shadow longer than anything even free Chanel Ombre Essentielle could create. It's a smartly timed news dump by the department stores who didn't want to lose too much inventory but also a testament to how huge a cultural phenomenon this inauguration was. Americans love free stuff, but apparently we love the stuff surrounding our institutions of freedom even more.
(By the way, Hanna, you'll be thrilled to note that to get to the article, you've got to click through a patriotic J. Crew ad touting their goods as "always inspiring." The Obama bump has been great for the retailer. Its Web site—with a new feature on designing for the Obama ladies, how's that for creative interpretation of off-the-rack?—has been swamped to the point of crashing since the inauguration.)
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I'm buying into the whole Michelle-Obama-redefines-fashion-for-first-ladies theme. She avoids the usual clichés; she projects athletic and feminine; she does designer fashion and "off the rack." The one thing I'm having trouble with is J. Crew representing "off the rack." As the fashion narrative goes, the fact that she buys clothes in, like, an actual store is supposed to inspire us regular folk in this faltering economy to do the same. But in my mind, I just can't fit J. Crew and Joe the Plumber in the same space. For one thing, those jackets (beautiful, sherbet-y, perfect) that she bought her girls cost close to $200, which is quite a lot for a kid's coat. For another, J. Crew's brand identity is aspiring high WASP—linen pants, crisp white shirts, striped shorts for the yacht. Before I gave up, I was always discouraged by how J. Crew pants stretched a foot too long on me, thus making it clear I was not one of them. Come to think of it, J. Crew is sort of the Sidwell Friends of chain brands, which may help explain things ...
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