Shoes and Ideology

$540 Lanvin trainers

First Lady Michelle Obama is being criticized for wearing pricey designer sneakers to hand out food to the needy.

While volunteering Wednesday at a D.C. food bank, the First Lady sported her usual J.Crew cardigan, a pair of utilitarian capri pants and, on her feet, a sneaky splurge: trainers that go for $540.

That’s right: These sneakers – suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps – are made by French design house Lanvin, one of fashion’s hottest labels. They come in denim and satin versions, and have been a brisk seller all spring.

Apparently she needed the ridiculously expensive but comfy shoes to walk her daughters’ new dog.

“I got up at 5:15 in the morning to walk my puppy,” she joked Thursday. “That’s how my day starts. Even though the kids are supposed to do a lot of the work, I’m still up at 5:15 a.m. taking my dog out.”

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Michelle probably got the shoes at the Ikram boutique in Chicago.

feminsts and geeks

Linda Hirshman, of the infamous TPM Cafe “pink” slip, wrote an interesting piece on Taylor Marsh’s site about the impact of the 2008 election season on feminism. Apparently, Michelle Goldberg is trying to defend her choice of candidate by condemning the rest of us females for Clinton as hysterical feminists. I’m not sure where Linda is going with this but there is one notion I would like to dispel. There is a wide spread misperception that college educated females are flocking to Obama like bobby soxers to Elvis. This would be incorrect.