'Caribou Barbie' Goes Couture

By Kurt Soller and Jessica Bennett
On Tuesday, financial disclosure forms revealed Republicans had spent more than $150,000 making over Gov. Sarah Palin and her family—including a $75,000 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis and $50,000 spent at Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York. The Palin camp responded by asking why the media would spend time talking about "pantsuits and blouses" (credit to Politico for breaking the story). Pundits weighed the potential political fallout: the clothes could certainly undercut Palin's working-class, hockey-mom appeal. Fashionistas, meanwhile, pondered the seeming disconnect between the amount of money spent and what the VP candidate actually wears. Everyone wondered: What exactly does $150,000 buy? With a stack of Palin photos in hand, NEWSWEEK's Kurt Soller and Jessica Bennett headed to Manhattan's original Saks, on Fifth Avenue, to play a game of ‘Who is Palin wearing?’ The consensus? Matching Palin's professional wear with the brands themselves is harder than it looks. The second-floor salesclerks called her "generic," and directed us to the fourth, who sent us to the eighth, who sent us back down to the second. The Valentino section told us to try St. John, who pointed us to Swiss label Akris. Employees at each showed us variations of outfits similar to Palin’s new look, agreeing that Palin's choices—save for the statement shoes—remain fairly ‘safe.’ At Chanel, one of the women simply said: "She has a political look. But if she wins this election, I may just jump off the Saks Fifth Avenue roof."