Revelations that the Republican National Committee has spent some $150,000 on dressing up the governor of Alaska for the campaign trail could be a wonderful thing for the world of fashion, specifically American fashion, especially at a time when consumer confidence is waning.

Compared to the French (no one in Paris is giving Carla Bruni a hard time for dressing the role of First Lady in the local couture) or even the British, Americans maintain a very ambiguous relationship to fashion. We want it, we revere it on reality shows, we insist our celebrities dress well — hence the success we are reminded of this week in the obituaries of Richard Blackwell and his annual Worst-Dressed List — but if you are found out to actually spend money on fashion, style or grooming, such as John Edwards’s pricey haircuts or Cindy McCain’s earrings or way back to Jackie Kennedy’s Cassini frocks, we attack the person for being wasteful and superficial. Basically, you are vilified.

Now how the hell are retailers expected to move the merch with this attitude? This is a very tired point of view, hypocritical to its roots in a capitalistic system where, at least in Manhattan, the fashion business is the No. 2 revenue producer for the city, second only to finance. (Probably, now No. 1 given the failures of finance.)

So, go Sarah, go! Instead of shrinking, lying, deflecting, come out of the closet and, yes, yes, yes, declare it: "I am a fashionista in a recessionista world! I am a proud wearer of good clothing! I wake up thinking of shoes. I get my hair done, my nails, my makeup … I read Vogue! I was in Vogue! 

"Clothes make the man and fashion the woman. And I do this for you, America! Anymore than I would wave a threadbare flag on the campaign trail would I shake it in a muumuu from Mervyn’s."

And better dress departments from sea to shining sea will thank you, Sarah Palin, for coming, so to speak, out of the closet.

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