what a $1000 shirt looks like

if i owned a $1,000 shirt it would stop traffic.  i’d keep it in a special place in my home–not the closet, but in a unique display case in my living room for all visitors to see.  if i owned a $1000 shirt it would kill.  most importantly, it certainly would not have an unidentified animal swimming around the neck nor would it look like i scored it from the clearance rack at chino’s.

 meet ann romney.  owner of a $1,000 reed krakoff shirt and wife of mitt romney, the shoe-in for the republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election.

admittedly, i don’t know much about ann romney, aside from her political affiliation and obvious penchant for extravagantly-priced-ugly shirts, i could walk past her in the mall tomorrow and not recognize her face.  however, when people wear expensive ugly clothes, it tells us a lot about both them and society-at-large.  here’s what i’ve surmised:

1.) she’s pretty audacious.  after her husband’s comment that he doesn’t care about the very poor, i’m shocked ann romney so willingly flaunted her wealth on national tv.  do i really have to be reminded that not only am i too poor for the potential next president to care about, but his wife owns shirts that cost more than i can afford to pay for housing?

2.) she’s out of touch with reality.  price tags don’t positively correlate with style–expensive items are not inherently fly. in fact, they’re just expensive. ann romney should give michelle obama’s stylist a call.

3.) presidential candidates and their families are anchored members of the american patriciate.  politics are predominated by the wealthy and money spent on presidential elections could feed entire countries.  for example, barack obama spent $730 million to become president in 2008.  of course, this was not his personal stash, but realistically how many people have the resources to tap into $730 million?  wealth, or the lack thereof, is primarily cyclical–it takes money to make money, and in this case, it takes personal wealth to raise the millions of dollars necessary to become president of the united states of america.

as a black woman in america, i rarely feel connected with political leaders or their families.  folks in positions of power rarely look like me or have a background that’s remotely similar to mine.  ann romney’s $1,000 shirt just further isolated me from the american electoral process.  she nor her husband are in a position to represent my interests–especially not my fashion sense.