Sarah Palin Fashion Icon and Halloween Hit
Repulican Vice-Presidential Candidate Inspiring Lookalike Frenzy
Oct 27, 2008
Reports are emerging of 2008’s costume of choice this Halloween. Despite her rocky beginning as Republican vice-presidential candidate, weathering satirical impersonations on Saturday Night Live that have given the US comedy show its highest ratings in recent years and undergoing intense public scrutiny for her unwed teenage daughter’s pregnancy, her political opinions and the expense to the Republican Party for her new wardrobe, Sarah Palin wigs and titanium rimmed glasses are selling out across American stores.
In New York, a state which predominantly votes Democratic, store owners claim they have had to be creative to meet the demand. Ricky's, a costume store chain, is selling metal-rimmed glasses teamed with the Amy Winehouse wig in stock. The costume department manager is advising customers to tuck the wig into a French twist to achieve the Palin beehive coiffeur. The company CEO, Todd Kenig, told The Telegraph that last week the store sold more than 150 Palin wigs and over 600 Palin sashes which read 'Miss Alaska' on the front and 'Miss Vice President' on the back. But he doesn’t believe the rush to get into a Palin get-up is an indication of people embracing her politics, 'It's all parody, I don't believe it's supporters,' he said.
The New York Daily News reported that Halloween Adventures had been unable to get Palin masks in time so have punned Barack Obama’s ‘lipstick on a pig’ comment from the campaign trail and put red lipstick and a US$8.99 price-tag on its standard pig mask in the store’s Fourth Avenue window.
Sarah Palin Fever
Palin’s internet popularity saw her beat out Britney Spears on the number of Google searches the day after the MTV Video Music Awards, according to Google's Hot Trends and Jeremy Gutsche, who tracks trends for the online magazine TrendHunter.com has summed up the feeling with, "The world has, as we put it, Sarah Palin fever."
Saurday Night Live’s Tina Fey is not the only look-alike if you believe Facebook which has groups ‘Women Who Kind of Look Like Sarah Palin Against Sarah Palin’ with twenty-nine members and ‘People who kind of look like Sarah Palin, and hate it!’ with its twenty members, five of which are male.
Orthodox Jewesses in Brooklyn are also favouring the look also, according to Reuters, seeking wigs (which are worn by the women for religious reasons) in the Sarah Palin style. At US$695 and made from real human hair, John McCain’s running mate would have to take the imitation as flattery
Look-alikes and Doppelgangers
Other doppelgangers are feeling the heat. Cindy Michaels, a news anchor in US state Maine claimed she has received hate mail from viewers accusing her of trying to influence the election by trying to look like Palin. Michaels, who has long brown hair and wears glasses was surprised by the resemblance, 'I was kind of shocked when I got the very first phone call. I honestly thought it was a joke,' Michaels told The Canadian Post, 'I did not know I look like her.'
The model of Palin’s glasses, Kawasaki 704 titanium frames, retail for US$375 and are reportedly selling out. But if you miss out on those, at least you can get the hair right. Instructions abound online for the Sarah Palin up-do and it’s free to try it at home.
