Fashion Designers Hope to Stitch Up an Obama Win - ready to roll out an Obama clothing line.

[jefferson_dem]

Fashion Designers Hope to Stitch Up an Obama Win

By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 16, 2008; A01

It used to be that political campaigns would be satisfied if they managed to settle on an eye-catching font for their T-shirts and trucker caps. The merchandise wasn't so much designed as it was stamped out like a pile of red, white and blue bunting. Political paraphernalia was mostly about the message -- not the aesthetics.

Now it is enthusiastically and abundantly about style. The Barack Obama campaign, which has been actively courting the fashion industry, has coordinated some 20 or so designers who are creating official merchandise for the candidate's Web site. It is the first time, as far as Seventh Avenue long-timers can recall, that a quorum of the fashion industry has organized its financial resources and creative energy around a single presidential candidate.

The mix, available online next month, ranges from T-shirts to tote bags and will lend a bit of runway panache to the Obama brand. The list of participating designers, which includes Derek Lam, Isaac Mizrahi, Tracy Reese, Charles Nolan and Diane von Furstenberg, covers the full spectrum of the market, from high-end to inexpensive. Other names have been bandied about but not confirmed: Beyoncé, Russell Simmons, Michael Bastian, Vera Wang.

Few entrepreneurs are as adept at brand building and buzz creation as fashion designers. Theirs, after all, is the industry that transformed velour sweat suits into the status symbol known as Juicy Couture. Denim manufacturers convinced shoppers that there was nothing wrong with regularly paying $200 or more for a pair of artfully distressed jeans. And accessories designers prompted otherwise rational women to invest thousands of dollars in "it" handbags that contained neither that much leather nor that much labor.

All of the smoke-and-mirror marketing, prescient creativity and business acumen have the New York fashion industry generating $47 billion in sales annually. Imagine how much gloss fashion folks could apply to the Obama brand.

The junior senator from Illinois already is the candidate Ebony magazine declared "cool," the one who has rock stars, actors and Obama Girl swooning. Designing for his campaign is a long way from getting a red-carpet credit, but there's no small amount of warmth in his reflected glow.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503972_pf.html

Along the same lines, here's McCain's latest product endorsement...

[tridim]

1. I just love that art and creativity are a big part of the Obama package.

It's exactly what this country needs right now.

[blondeatlast]

2. LOVE IT! Isaac Mizrahi, DvF--gimme, gimme! So cool, I can't wait! nt

[AllieB]

4. I found an original DvF wrap dress in a consignment store years ago.

I still have it and cherish it, and I'm so glad she's back! The wrap dress flatters nearly every figure.

And don't get me started on Isaac Mizrahi's shoes! :D

[blondeatlast]

3. Fashion has an enormous influence on culture that we don't really grasp sometimes.

I've often thought that one of the unused tools in campaigning is fashion. Make your campaign fashionable and it will send youth to the polls.

It may be a LIV appeal, but it works--and it's more likely to succeed on our side than the RW, who also pander to the LIVs.

[Skidmore]

7. Make it fashionable, but make it affordable.

There are a whole lot of people who don't buy designer clothing because of the pricing.

[blondeatlast]

8. Mizrahi has done a remarkably good line for Target. He's one of the few fashionistas who actually

like people (Yves Saint Laurent was another).

If anyone can, it's Mizrahi. And Vera Wang has done a line for Kohl's, I almost forgot that.

[miles 2 go]

5. What? No one is hoping to roll out a McCain fashion line?

It's hard to believe.

[blondeatlast]

6. Even Brooks Brothers ran screaming away when the McSame staffers approched them. nt