Politics and luxury: irreconcilable enemies

Those of us who work in the women's press know the subject well. For years, interviewing a woman who is in

accepting that, in most cases, she will not accept that you

or

As a general rule, the clothes with which the policies pose is theirs and at most they accept that, in order to counteract unwanted reflections, you brush their faces with powder. It does not matter if the interviewee has terrible taste in dressing, that she wears wrinkled clothes, or that you offer her something very similar to her. No way. Because politicians are terrified of losing control over their personal image, to appear frivolous, banal, stereotypically feminine. It's the dreaded

I explain.

Before 2004 things were different, and the relationship of the (few) politicians with the media, much more relaxed.

You asked

to pose taking the garbage out of her house, and she did it (I am a witness), or

to dress up as Isabel la Católica for El País Semanal (in that wonderful series of photographs by

and she hala , why not.

But in September 2004,

published a report entitled 'Eight women for history' with the ministers of the new

government

... which, in effect, made history.

And not exactly the good one.

The opening double page of the controversial Vogue report on the ministers of Zapatero's cabinet in 2004.

ALL AGAINST THE MINISTERS-MODELS

As soon as it was published, criticism rained down from all fronts, including the left and many from feminist ranks.

from Izquierda Unida, went so far as to say that she did not forgive the ministers who had agreed to appear in this report.

The PP reproached that if they had done it, the scandal would have been enormous ...

who appeared in the photos (she was Minister of Culture), defended herself saying that the result seemed "elegant and austere" and

( Sanidad) stated that she did not feel "less feminist" for having participated in it.

"You are what you communicate, what you say and also what you wear," explains

political communication and marketing consultant.

And he adds: "Consistency in politics is a very precious asset, more and more and newspaper archives do not forgive."

And so much.

That report where the ministers appeared with brand-name clothes, combed, made-up, carelessly happy, posing as rich and idle women on fur sofas in

marked a before (of trust) and an after (of distrust) in the attitude of policies towards the press.

Brand clothing is over.

The ostentation is over.

Long live coherence.

BY A HANDFUL OF VUITTONES

But you don't have to be featured in a fashion magazine report to raise blisters with your clothes and accessories. And in the middle of 2021 it turns out that the Minister of Equality,

has received all kinds of attacks on social networks for being the owner of a

brand bag

. A tweeter eager for reality to adapt to his wishes - and a very keen eyesight, it must be said - published an image of the minister behind which, on a chair, a bag of that brand could be seen. The tweeter accompanied his graphic document with the following message: "These are the ones who sold to politics to fight against caste and end the privileges of politicians." Next to Montero, in the image, was Carmen Calvo, president of the Equality Commission of Congress, who has finally turned out to be the owner of the happy bag!

From the enormous success of that tweet and its retweets, it is possible to deduce that many people think, like the one who threw the first stone, that a left-wing politics and a Vuitton bag are two incompatible entities. We do not know if the political women of this ideological segment should carry tote bags, straw baskets, handbags from the market or better, crochet alms made in a communal apartment, because that does not clarify it, but Vuitton, synonymous with traditional luxury, that of course not.

We seek the opinion of an expert, specifically that of fashion analyst

So, directly: is it incompatible to be on the left and carry a Vuitton bag? "I don't think so. What would be incoherent, regardless of whoever's purse, is that certain people who enact and publicly manifest things against those tendencies later wear it. That sometimes some politicians declare some things and then do others, it is incompatible. , as it is that they criticize bourgeois ways of life and then they are the ones who live as bourgeois ".

Not see it from the same perspective

a researcher and professor specializing in art and feminism,

at the Complutense University of Madrid. "This is an old theme: the right to enjoy expensive objects. I am surprised that those who now appeal to respect for the freedom of the other (and in this case the right to property or purchase) are scandalized when it is exercised, precisely , that right. It is true that certain fashions are associated with lifestyles, but one may have the

and in any case, if the purchase of the Vuitton does not hinder a program or an activity of your Ministry, I believe that criticism is not acceptable.

Or do you make worse social policies for carrying a branded bag? ", He is amazed, and adds:" Perhaps the left cannot buy works of art, then?

Don't you have the right to aesthetic objects?

Can't you be rich and be willing to pay taxes so that wealth is redistributed? "

X-raying Carmen Calvo

If Irene Montero - who, we repeat, does not own Luis Vuitton's bag - had wanted to expand information on this thorny issue (apart from talking about it with Nacho Montes and Marián Cao), she could have taken advantage of the fact that she was with Carmen Calvo to ask her directly. Because the clothes and accessories of the former vice president of the Government have also been the object of systematic inspection and criticism for years.

In 2019, for example, she was photographed on the street wearing a

600-euro

signature

, which was considered inexcusable by some. "Socialism is good ... for you," criticized an antagonist under a pseudonym. Already in 2018 it had been widely commented that he wore a

"It is what it has to use money that does not belong to anyone," complained someone desolate on Twitter. What is clear is that Carmen Calvo's relationship with luxury, including that of the Vuitton brand (it is not the first bag to display the famous anagram) is truly misunderstood.

Isaac M. Hernández believes that "if you want to govern and connect with the citizen majority, you have to live like the citizen majority. Do most women wear a Vuitton bag?"

Well, it depends on who you ask.

Let us remember the former mayor of Valencia,

great admirer of the French firm.

His is the mythical phrase "a Louis Vuitton bag is an absolutely common gift" that he gave to the press in the midst of the media storm generated by the trial for the suits given against the former president of the Generalitat

Rita Barberá with one of her Vuitton bags.

In any case, going back to the controversial bag that at this point we don't care who it was, Hernández Álvarez states that "both Irene Montero and Carmen Calvo must think that they are public figures, they are political 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, they are always in the public eye and therefore they must be aware of those details. Maintaining and taking care of personal image is a daily task, it requires care and a lot of caution. No politician is exempt from seeing how the

has become a meme on social media ".

Or worse.

Let them tell

And if you are not on the left, too

Although it is true that left-wing politicians tend to receive more digital zascas when they wear expensive clothes or accessories (which happens rarely, because the Vogue effect largely marks their public appearances, too), the reality is that it does not matter in where you are in the political rainbow to get hit when you go slightly out of what is expected of you. And not only in Spain. We have a very clear example in

During a time when she was sporting an

orange

, she was openly criticized by the opposition. Because the bag was

(!), Because it cost

(!) And because it was considered a symbol of

not very successful for times of crisis.

If the Germans had met Rita Barberá ...

Angela Merkel with her famous orange Longchamp bag for which she was criticized.

It also does not hurt to remember the blow that

received from all angles

in 2009 (at that time she was the spokesperson for the Popular Group in the Congress of Deputies), when she appeared in

, the then Sunday of EL MUNDO, in a photo where she posed sitting on the floor of a hotel room in an evening dress, showing her leg.

In this case it was not the luxury that was criticized, but his sensual attitude. From the party itself, her attitude in the photo was labeled as that of a 'fatal woman'. In another interview that he gave to

magazine that same year, he

commented on the scandal that "some people think that if you are a woman, young and 1.50 tall, you are more vulnerable just because you are smaller," and revealed that the socialist minister

He had sent her a message of support.

Exactly the same Carme Chacón who was turned green in 2010 for skipping the

protocol

and attending the event, as Defense Minister, wearing pants, instead of wearing a long dress and a mantilla.

But this is another matter, and as they said in 'The Neverending Story', "it will have to be dealt with at another time."

To finish, Marián Cao suggests that we look at the facts from a broader perspective in order to better understand them.

And back to the Vuitton of discord he tells us that this 'scandal' actually underlies a prejudice of social class.

"The same ones who said that

She went to her office dressed 'like a mop'. They are the ones who put the cry in the sky because Irene Montero has a Vuitton.

The problem is not Ada Colau's clothes or Irene Montero's handbag: the problem is that they are the 'illegitimate': women who come from the working class.

The handbag, the clothes, are metonyms of the resistance of these people to realize that democracy consists in being governed by the most capable, not by heritage or the social class from which they come, and that it is governed based on facts and actions, not to blows of image.

There is a latent rage when someone calls Ada Colau a 'mop' because of her clothes, or criticizes Irene Montero's bag - whether hers or not.

Anger against his presence in politics. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Irene Montero

• Carmen Calvo

• Ada Colau

• Spain

• Carme chacon

• Valencia

• Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría

• Angela Merkel

• Rita Barbera

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