Editor’s Note:  Introducing The Etceterist, the byline for the new style-world infiltrator for wowOwow.com, who will post deliciously anonymous weekly musings vis-à-vis the glamorous goings-on in the worlds of fashion and culture. Who is The Etceterist? Some may guess, but we prefer to stay silent, except to pronounce that there is no more inside insider in the worlds of art, beauty, society and culture. 

Someone is giving Sarah Palin great style and image advice, filled with detail and nuance. The beehive has landed, the makeup is sculpting the face for photogenic advantage, including the subtle lighter foundation stripe down her nose, which will bring out the cheekbones and narrow the nose; her suits accentuate waist (slim waists another status item) and hips and now this, the ultimate status symbol, no handbag, shades of Hillary Clinton, Carla Bruni, Anna Wintour, women you will rarely see carrying a pocketbook — unless for black-tie evenings which is another story, when the bag is jeweled and becomes its own display of status — or, if you are Queen Elizabeth, a handbag with nothing in it. (Come to think of it, recent photographs of Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and Laura Bush show that these ladies are liberated also of their pocketbooks. It takes an entourage.)

Several days ago, Page Six wrote about Palin’s sophisticated styling and secret fashion supporters. For her big speech at the Republican convention, she wore a $2,500 shantung silk Valentino jacket, even if it was bought on sale, pricey. Speculation continues: Who might be masterminding all the fine dressing? One name the Etceterist hears mentioned often as a possibility is Gahl Hodges Burt, one of the chicest women in Washington, certainly the best-dressed Republican of our acquaintance. Burt, who was social secretary to Nancy Reagan from 1983 to 1985, is also said to be helping Cindy McCain sartorially. (The candidates are so worried about being considered elite or moneyed they cannot make their own calls or shop lest they get found out.) Her husband, Richard Burt, the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1985 to 1989, is senior advisor at Kissinger McLarty Associates.

That certainly would explain how Sarah Palin came to spend 90 minutes with Henry Kissinger on Tuesday, and nary a hockey mom’s pocketbook in sight.

Guess you can take your name off the waiting list for that Birkin bag at Hermès. Never mind keeping up with the "must-have” bags of the season. This year, the real status pocketbook — is no pocketbook. Or at least that was the message trumpeted on the Sarah Palin style watch this week. Her power phone and her power BlackBerry at the ready, yes, but never a bag in sight as the Republican candidate for the vice presidency wended her way around town.

Will this trickle down to the rest of women? What will it mean for the accessories business that, like sales of perfume, relies on bags and shoes to move the merch?

According to a study published last year, the average woman’s handbag — and this includes hockey moms — is a weighty five pounds. By the end of this decade, the average weight will be 6.6 pounds. The Etceterist doesn’t care how trendy, at these weights the bag is a burden — our aching backs. But, no bag, well, now you are talking freedom and status. However, it takes an entourage.

People in power, or people who want to convey power, do not carry pocketbooks, umbrellas and briefcases, even coats — very John F. Kennedy – because that is why you have a car and driver in which to leave such utilitarian things. Or an assistant, unseen out of photo range, does the schlepping.

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