[Tracey Reese top, Rachel Roy scarf, and Derek Lam tote via Runway to Change]
We were really excited last month when we heard the Obama campaign was selling t-shirts and tote bags designed by everyone from Alexander Wang to Diane von Furstenberg. But then we saw the store. It's not just that, as Wonkette pointed out, the whole thing makes Obama seem a little effete (Derek Lam, did you really need to put so many flowers on your tote?) It's that the stuff itself just isn't very cute.
Nanette Lepore's shirt comes with a goofy rosette pin; Tracy Reese's top looks like a give-away from a corporate office bonding experience; and Vera Wang's sketch of a bobbleheaded voter-girl could be the cover of a million bland chick lit novels. We're pretty sure that some right-wing pundit is going to squint hard at Rachel Roy's scarf and declare it a keffiyah. And the thing we were most excited about, the Alexander Wang tank top, doesn't appear to be in stock. On the whole, the store is another illustration that designing for politicians is much harder than it looks (and another reminder that Shepard Fairey's ubiquitous Obama poster is flat-out amazing.)
· Barack Obama Is the New H&M [Racked]
· Runway to Change [Barack Obama]
· A Guided Tour Of Obama’s Elitist New Designer Clothing Boutique [Wonkette]
