Mrs. Kucinich's wardrobe

My wife sews. Neener. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I love thrift stores - they allow me to have good-quality clothing (and furniture!) while supporting a good cause. The ironic thing is that thrift stores wouldn't be any good if everyone was crunchy. As I told my friend, who was talking excitedly about his new $500 pair of jeans and the latest thing at Banana Republic, "I'm glad people like you buy expensive clothes, so people like me can pay $7 for them at the thrift store two years later!" My favorite thrift store has mainly Gap, Old Navy, J Crew, and Ann Taylor clothing. (It's where the SMU kids donate their old stuff, apparently.) I appreciate it - Gap and the others do make high-quality stuff.

I spent 18 years with the MOST expensive clothier in the USA, Neiman Marcus, where as National Sales Director, I was expected to wear (and did routinely) $2000-3000 suits. And I was a Clinton guy, despite working in,around,for..... the land of rabidly Pro-Bush corporate wonderland entitlement (top 2% of nation). When a pair of shoes costs $1,000, the target customer is hardly non-GOP types. In life after that surrender to fashionable elitists, I buy everything pretty much on eBay. Still a $2000 suit. I just pay instead $169, then tailor it for me. What that makes me is a smart dresser and a savvy consumer....perhaps not "crunchy", but rather, crisp enough to chip a fool's brittle teeth.

James, I understand what you say, but in all due respect, may I put this in perspective, as someone who knows quite a lot about this subject on virtually all levels, including non-profit thrift retail.
The people who shop at thrift shops...and I have many times...support the charities they are catering to. And besides, trust me, there is such a glut of American clothes donated to the Thrift stores, much of it...in fact the lion's share...is taken by truck to the Mexican border where it is sold by the pound. And more to the point, percent to total, many, many 'thrift stores' are for-profit and not charity related. Believe me, if Julie buys a this or that, they are many options still left for whomever. The point YOU are making would apply if they were going to a thrift center where items were distributed free to those low income and indigent.

I've got a scarf story better than that; I was digging in a bin of odds and ins in a very trashy Dallas thrift store...totally chaotic and disorder everywhere. And pulled out a scarf I asked about and got for 25 cents. (Now here comes the 'I only knew this because I had worked at Neiman Marcus' part) I knew what it was; it was an Hermes Paris huge square scarf, probably more that $400 at today's dollar vs. Euro. I sold it on eBay for $165. And used THAT money to help pay my medical bills since circa 2003, I was not able to work for months following a grisly accident. How's THAT for re-cycling!

Connie, Wikipedia says the following: "He is twice-divorced, with a daughter, Jackie, from his marriage to Sandra Lee McCarthy and married his third wife, Elizabeth Harper, a British citizen, on August 21, 2005." Now we all know Wikipedia is not always reliable, but this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer confirms that daughter Jackie is real, so if she's not the child of a first wife she must be born out of wedlock, scarcely a better possibility: http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/print119957.html Other links discovered via Google reveal that Jackie Kucinich now writes for The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

Cassie, I buy from a Dutch photographer, a stylist in L.A., and a man in Hong Kong occassionally. All three have sold me the Belgium designer I am crazy about, which fits me, is hip but sorta conservative, well made, not too young but definitely not stodgy...normally quite expensive, versatile and handsome. See why I was a crackerjack salesperson in my early NM career? I could made a nun want the postman. But no, everyone has to find their own niche, and line, and sellers on eBay. It is not a one size fits all kinda hunt. To wear the line I wear I mentioned, one has to be relatively slim, etc. There are no shortcuts to being a savvy eBayer.

Well, he divorced the first two because they spent too much money on clothes.

For example, the Raphael House in SF has a really nice thrift store. http://www.raphaelhouse.org/donate/thrift.shtml If there ever was a model how to run a charitable service to help families get off the streets, it's the Raphael House. http://www.raphaelhouse.org/index.shtml

"When a pair of shoes costs $1,000, the target customer is hardly non-GOP types." Ha!!!!!!!!! What planet are you living on? Who do you think makes up the Democratic party? Sharecroppers?
When the whole Bush-Gore-Florida-election circus was going on, I had a very good (and very liberal) friend over to watch the news. The news copter kept showing these huge, multi-million dollar homes in Florida that make Graceland look like an outhouse.
The reporter happened to mention that this was a major Democratic Party stronghold and I watched my friend's mouth drop open. She honestly thought that all the super rich resided in the mean, cruel GOP.
So does John Edwards get furniture for his 30,000 sq. ft. energy-sucking house from the Salvation Army? I guess all those rich folks I saw in NYC with their Madison Ave shopping bags -- who were drinking their $5 lattes and cursing Guliani -- were in fact very thrifty working class types on a rare excursion into shopping district.

I have a nephew who's mentally handicapped and autistic. He works at the local Goodwill store here three days a week as a stock sorter. The pride on his face and in his voice when he brings home his check to show everyone each week is immeasurable. So, my point is I really don't care who shops at thrift and Goodwill type stores. It's these kind of stores who hire people like my nephew and give them a hand up, so I say hurrah and thank you to anyone who does.

Whoops, forgot to give propos to JPod for his funny comment.

I was wrong about Kucinich's prior marriages. Sorry.