September 26, 2021
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The Biggest Fashion Stories from the 2012 Presidential Campaign

From Michelle Obama's flawless style and support of young designers to the fashion industry's fundraising efforts, this has easily been the most fashiony election season of all time. In fact, the fashion industry is seen as playing a vital role in this election. But, we're not just talking about designers' hefty donations and Anna Wintour-hosted dinners. For instance, there was that time Ann Romney wore a $900 Reed Krakoff shirt and who could forget Cathy Horyn attacking Paul Ryan for wearing an ill-fitted jacket? As ballots continue to be cast and counted, let us take a look back at the biggest fashion stories to come out of the 2012 presidential election, which will soon, finally, come to an end.
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From Michelle Obama's flawless style and support of young designers to the fashion industry's fundraising efforts, this has easily been the most fashiony election season of all time.

In fact, the fashion industry is

The Reed Krakoff Bird Shirt Fairly early on in election season, Republican First Lady hopeful Ann Romney put a bird on it with a $900 Reed Krakoff, which she wore on CBS' Early Show. Romney was highly criticized for wearing the shirt--not because of the ridiculousness of the giant bird, but because of the high price tag.

Anna Wintour, Top-Tier Bundler..and Aspiring Politician? Back in February, Anna Wintour was announced as a "Top-Tier" bundler for the Obama-Biden campaign, meaning she was one of 61 people to "bundle" over the $500,000 level. This added to speculation that Wintour's sudden political involvement stemmed from a desire to nab a white house job (which Wintour denied).

Anna Wintour Catches Flack Anna Wintour has been one of Obama's most outspoken supporters. It was a video she recorded to "invite people" to one of her fundraising dinners that was

Runway to Win Vogue, the CFDA and the Obama/Biden campaign collaborated on Runway to Win, a new initiative that has major American designers designing

The Fancy Dinners and Parties

Half of Page Six's content this year centered around the many star-studded dinners and fundraising events thrown for Obama this year--not only in New York but in Los Angeles,

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Oscar de la Renta Controversy Oscar de la Renta has played an interesting role throughout the election season and Obama's presidency. He's dressed past first ladies, but Michelle Obama has never publicly worn his designs. When Michelle Obama wore McQueen to the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao last year, de la Renta criticized her in WWD for not wearing an American label. Then, Ann Romney

Designers Not Embracing Ann Romney The largely left-leaning fashion industry just hasn't embraced Ann Romney the way they have Michelle Obama. Fox News even speculated that Anna Wintour was "pressuring designers to steer clear of Ann Romney." Whatever.

Ann Romney Somehow Manages to Wear Diane Von Furstenberg Ann Romney

Alfred Fiandaca, the Designer Dresses Ann Romney WWD interviewed the little-known Boston-based designer, who dressed Romney for much of the campaign trail. Here's what we learned.

Michelle Obama's Every Outfit Since the beginning of this election season, we feel that the FLOTUS has really stepped up her game fashion wise and even introduced some

Paul Ryan's Ill-Fitting Suit The fit of Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan's suiting has been met with much criticism. The jacket he wore when he announced his candidacy was particularly offensive to New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn, who

Rick Santorum Sweater Vest GOP candidate Rick Santorum became known for his geeky sweater vests. The vests inspired a Twitter handle, a New York Times feature, and eventually became such a strong signature, we guess, that Santorum decided to sell them online.

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Why the Fashion Industry Won't Embrace Ann Romney

Ann Romney has all the makings of a political wife fashion icon: She's pretty, she's blonde and, unlike past aspiring first ladies, she has at least a passing interesting in fashion. She's worn new and established designers (Reed Krakoff, Oscar de la Renta, respectively) as well as contemporary cool brand J.Brand, and we think she always manages to look pretty great (if conservative). But despite all this, the fashion industry is noticeably cooler towards Romney. We receive press release upon press release about Michelle's campaign wardrobe. It's become a major coup for a designer to dress Michelle Obama. But we've yet to receive one--one--about Ann Romney's.

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The Fashion Industry Shells Out for Obama, Seen as Playing Vital Role in Re-election Campaign

The fashion industry seems to be leaning to the left, according to a recent analysis of the industry's financial support of presidential candidates leading up to the 2012 election. WWD commissioned the Center for Responsive Politics to crunch the numbers, which took into consideration donations from department store, mass retail and apparel brand executives and employees. The result: the industry gave a total of $435,160 to the presidential race, 53.9 percent, or $234,600, to Obama and 45.9 percent to Republicans. Also interesting: the fashion industry may play a more significant role in getting Obama re-elected than other Democratic-leaning industries like Hollywood, tech and Wall Street, whose donations are said to have declined this time around.

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Is Anna Wintour the Next US Ambassador to London? Probably Not and Here's Why

In the past couple of years, Anna Wintour has become more publicly involved with politics than at any other time in her career, leading many to wonder: Why? Wintour, who is one of Obama's top-tier fundraising bundlers, has been particularly politically active over the past few months. She's attended two state dinners (one of which honored UK prime minister David Cameron and his wife, Samantha) and hosted a fundraising event with Scarlett Johansson for Runway to Win, an official fashion fundraiser for the Obama-Biden campaign. This week, she'll host another Runway to Win event with Iman in Chicago, as well as a fundraising dinner in New York at Sarah Jessica Parker's house. While conservatives are criticizing Wintour's involvement in Obama's campaign as an indicator of the President's "out of touch"-ness (the phrase-du-jour), the Brits are suddenly speculating that she may be up for a job with the president, should he be re-elected.

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Democrat vs. Republican: Who Was the Sartorial Winner at Last Night's Presidential Debate?

Last night at the first presidential debate, we got to see the candidates--and their wives--in the same room at the same time for the first time ever. While we will leave the discussion of who "won" the debate to the pundits, we think we're more than qualified to weigh in on some of the fashion choices happening last night.

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