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Home Front: Culture Wars
Fashion Police Attack Cheney
2005-01-28
OSWIECIM, Poland -- Vice President Dick Cheney's utilitarian hooded parka and boots stood out amid the solemn formality of a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Nazi death camps, raising eyebrows among the fashion-conscious.
It stood out to me as well, he's wearing a AF issue artic parka. My first thought, "He forgot to bring a warm coat and borrowed one from his flight crew"
Cheney replaced the zipped-to-the-neck green parka he sported in Thursday's blowing snow and freezing wind with a more traditional black coat - red tie and gray scarf showing underneath - for his tour of Auschwitz on Friday.
They found his luggage or he bought one.
Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan described Cheney's look at the deeply moving 60th anniversary service as "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."
"Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood," Givhan wrote in Friday's Post, also mocking Cheney's knit ski cap embroidered with the words "Staff 2001" and his brown, lace-up hiking boots. "The vice president looked like an awkward child amid the well-dressed adults," she said.
No, Robin, he looks like a man, not a fashion fop in a fur cap like the euros behind him.
Posted by:Steve

#23  Just a minor objection, but I thought it was the Russians who liberated Auschwitz.

Is anyone else a bit surprised that it never crossed the minds of the editors at the Post to avoid the use of the phrase "the way in which children's clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp"?

Good catch, Mark E.
Posted by: Rafael   2005-01-28 10:39:15 PM  

#22  Did it occur to anyone at the Post that it was appropriate for the Vice President of the US to be dressed like the US soldiers who liberated Auschwitz instead of well-dressed Europeans whose parents fell all over themselves handing over their Jewish neighbors to the Nazis? Also, a man with a heart condition is better off warm than fashionable.
Posted by: RWV   2005-01-28 10:16:52 PM  

#21  Xbalanke - Yes, you're right. But a friggin' fashion writer critiquing the VP's wardrobe at this 60th anniversary makes as much sense as that stupid "Pearl Harbor" movie concentrating on the most boring "love triangle" in cinematic history.
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2005-01-28 10:15:50 PM  

#20  Muck, I must say this is the FIRST time I have no idea what in hell you are trying to say.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-28 10:06:56 PM  

#19  "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."

ima thinkerin chainey a few bolts short of can be use as snowblower
Posted by: muck4doo   2005-01-28 8:44:37 PM  

#18  The testerone-challenged will obviously be targeting Cheney now that word of the Vice-President's dimensionally impressive equipment seems to have spread throughout the national rumor-mill, thanks to a widely-distributed and completely authentic photograph of a modesty lapse during a recent interview.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2005-01-28 8:37:49 PM  

#17  The first decent snow in chicago this year left 4 mid to old age guys dead in their driveways...its an annual occurance... and 2 of the 4 were using snow throwers, so don't let the Home Depot guy use that pitch on ya!
My Honda snow thrower is my favorite power tool but parkas are too bulky to operate it with...t thus invalidating the WAPO reporters clever little turn of phrase.
I have a snow suit that my kids swear I bought to match the snowthrower. I will never tell...
Posted by: Capsu78   2005-01-28 6:14:00 PM  

#16  Sgt. Mom, obviously, but it would have been a better story if he had worn drab clothes like everybody else and died. That's what the M$M wanted.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-01-28 6:04:38 PM  

#15  Oh for the love of... good lord, he is on the far side of 70, with heart trouble, standing out for how long in the snow and the cold? Getting badly chilled is probably not what his doctors ordered.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2005-01-28 5:57:11 PM  

#14  Ace said it best:

""Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood. It is embroidered with his name. It reminded one of the way in which children's clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp. And indeed, the vice president looked like an awkward boy amid the well-dressed adults."

Is anyone else a bit surprised that it never crossed the minds of the editors at the Post to avoid the use of the phrase "the way in which children's clothes are inscribed with their names before they are sent away to camp"?

You know, when writing about an *Auschwitz* memorial?"

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/065189.php
Posted by: Mark E.   2005-01-28 5:47:41 PM  

#13  Cheney was with the phawnch, wasn't he? So he probably had to wear a kevlar union suit but didnt want the froggies to know.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-01-28 5:06:26 PM  

#12  Raj, tu3031:
My oldest son is finally old enough to operate the snow blower. He thought that was way cool - until this past week.
Posted by: Xbalanke   2005-01-28 4:52:23 PM  

#11  Are Nazis "in" this year?

IIRC the Nazis - especially the SS - were VERY snappy dressers.
Posted by: Xbalanke   2005-01-28 4:49:31 PM  

#10  The dead don't care how he was dressed, babe.
Posted by: mojo   2005-01-28 4:40:43 PM  

#9  I'd settle for the snow blower.
Al Gore can shove Global Warming up his ass...
Posted by: tu3031   2005-01-28 4:05:07 PM  

#8  "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."

Dear Mr. Cheney - We've had 3+ feet of snow here in Kennedy Country the past week. tu3031 and I could make good use of that jacket(s).

Thanks,

Raj
Posted by: Raj   2005-01-28 4:03:14 PM  

#7  This reporting fits into the "Worthless Shit Not Worth Reading" category. Who gives a rats behind what Cheney wears? Was he warm? That's all that matters.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-28 3:52:05 PM  

#6  I'm sure his heart surgeon would have approved of the attire.
Did the WaPo really send over a fashion reporter to cover the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz? Are Nazis "in" this year?
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2005-01-28 3:45:25 PM  

#5  Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan described Cheney's look at the deeply moving 60th anniversary service as "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."

This article is pretty damned stupid. Considering the ceremony the VP attended, I would tend to think that fashion would be the least of his concerns (and the attendees, for that matter). Apparently, this either must have escaped the mind of the "fashion writer", or nothing else is more important than fashion, even the deaths of a million individuals.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-28 3:42:56 PM  

#4  These fools would have left the concentration camps unliberated for our soldiers' lack of formal attire. Cheney was there and kept warm. WaPo be damned.
Posted by: Tom   2005-01-28 3:31:40 PM  

#3  Good. I do not want my elected officials tramping around the world looking like randy, coquettish haberdashers.
Posted by: Dragon Fly   2005-01-28 3:00:42 PM  

#2  I wish he was wearing combat boots.

On second thought, was he?
Posted by: Mac Suirtain   2005-01-28 2:49:32 PM  

#1  This ran on the front page of the Style section in WaPo with a nice large color picture. Sigh.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-01-28 2:09:01 PM  

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