SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010
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The point of this introductory shot is not to establish the women as fashion savants. No, no. The manner in which they position their hands on their hips, shimmy and toss their hair makes them look more tarty than tasteful. In some openings, the women will have their heads tilted back in a rather haughty manner while they perch with formal posture on an armchair. The resulting statement is: Here sits imperiousness that’s ready to pop. With the likelihood of inappropriate behavior thus established, let the hair-pulling — or weave-wrenching — ensue. Fashion is a weapon, a distraction, a power play from Atlanta to New York. In more than one version of
“The Real Housewives,” fashion provides an outlet for the women’s entrepreneurial interests. Fashion is the perfect occupation for the Housewives, whose job it is to look good, stir up trouble and engage in the kind of consumer gluttony that transforms a shopping trip into a day-long affair that requires breaks for sustenance. Few other industries have so captured the public’s imagination as a fertile ground for money, glamour and, sadly, catty behavior. The fashion industry fascinates because it is charged with attaching a dollar value to physical attractiveness. How crass! It also allows for an open and loving display of material goods. A housewife can inventory her collection of shoes and have it cast as research for a possible fashion line. The Housewives of Atlanta and
New Jersey, in particular, are expert consumers. The cameras don’t highlight their discerning eye but rather their voracious appetites. They are hungry to define themselves, yearning to be noticed and starving for status for themselves and their families. Their fashion consumption delivers that message succinctly, so that the one-hour dramas do not have to waste time with characters offering long self-analysis. Get a load of that disastrous “She by Shereé” line! Why does Kim wear such flamboyant platinum Dolly Parton wigs? Why
Fashioning a generation of ‘Housewives’ with designer duds ROBIN GIVHAN
is Teresa obsessed with dressing her children up like designer Barbie dolls? Clothes and hair sum up the misleading, uncomfortable and insecure way in which the women navigate their world more eloquently than any on-camera confessional ever could. In New York, the fashion
connections are more direct and more substantial. The city is, after all, the center of the American fashion industry. Having access to fashion is not especially rarefied. Practically everyone in Manhattan knows someone who knows someone who can alert them to a “friends and family” sample sale or get them into a fashion show in some dank warehouse. In New York, fashion is part of the city’s language. Television boils that language down to the basest cliches, but it doesn’t lessen fashion’s ability to communicate. Housewife Kelly Killoren Bensimon is an erstwhile model, a former wife of a fashion editor and the author of several style-related picture books. She also displays the tart tongue and the explosive personality that are part of the fashion-insider stereotype. You hate her from the moment she says hello. Jill Zarin once hosted a luncheon and trunk show featuring the New York designer Zang Toi— a man who has been known to wear hot pants to business appointments. The event was an opportunity for Jill —the Housewives are all about first-name intimacy — to discuss the socioeconomic dynamics of the buy-it-at-full-price trunk show. Only the moneyed matter in a social sphere where everyone has some kind of access to designer attire. It’s not just about what you’re wearing, but how you got it.
And, of course, there is Alex
McCord and her husband, Simon van Kampen, for whom a shopping excursion is like a trip to the Museum of Modern Art with two of the world’s most pretentious and emotive art history majors. Even now, as the franchise turns its sights on D.C., a city
defined by politics, policy and the intelligentsia, fashion maintains its leading role. Housewife Lynda Erkiletian owns T.H.E. Artist Agency, and Bravo has provided the gloriously evocative tidbit that Mary Amons uses a biometric fingerprint scanner on her closet door to protect its contents from her children. That detail alone is fodder for a season’s worth of pop-psychology analysis.
And do we even need to mention Michaele Salahi and her red sari-like extravaganza seen around the world? That single get-up has become shorthand for narcissism, scandal and a mind-boggling ability to float through life in a private bubble of make-believe. The Housewives couldn’t exist without fashion. From a purely aesthetic point of view, fashion provides eye candy: a steady stream of bright colors, shiny fabrics, big furs, big hair, big cleavage, high heels and long extensions. After all, these aren’t just any Housewives — these are fabulously glamorous ones. (Note: No one is pitching “The Real Housewives of Gary.”) Fashion is also the Housewives’ worst frenemy, serving to belittle them at every opportunity. They try so hard to frame fashion as business, as just reward for all their hard work, as charitable tool, as art. But ultimately their efforts are unconvincing and viewers are left with the impression that the women are wholly defined by self-indulgence, materialism and showmanship. It will be interesting to see if
Washington, a city that is often characterized as being all work and no fun, a place where people take themselves too seriously to cut loose and flip over tables, will be able to stand up to the effects of fashion in its most tawdry form. The smart money says no because in reality TV, the most superficial elements thrive — not the most thoughtful or complex ones. Fashion can be serious business with a far-reaching cultural impact. But in the glare of the Housewives spotlight, in the midst of a hair-pulling match, the only thing anyone notices is who’s wearing the best — or worst — dress.
givhanr@washpost.com SF
The UVA Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church
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NICE THREADS: Alex McCord, left, and Ramona Singer are among the “Real Housewives” in the Big Apple who care deeply about designer labels, which helps define them as characters.
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LIME OR LEMONADE
SIMPLY OZ.
OZ. 16
OZ. 2/$ FRIENDSHIP
COTTAGE CHEESE 16
SOUR CREAM 2.48
& GELATINS 4-6 PAK
WHIPPED TOPPING
CABOT 7 OZ. SPRAY 1.98
PUDDINGS 2.98
1.48 10 JELLO
5.48 30 OZ. CHUCKLB. 4 10/$ OZ.
GREEK YOGURT
CHOBANI 6 OZ.
STRING CHEESE
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LAND O’ LAKE DOZEN 5
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STONEYFIELD 8 OZ. 64 3.48 /$
DRUMS & THIGHSLB.
2.98 THIGHSLB.
STEAKS GALORE FRESHLY GROUND BONE IN
3.28 2.68
3.68 9.98 7.98
TURKEY TENDERLOIN
SHADY BROOK MARINATED
10 64 CHUCK E CHEESE
2.98 2/$
OZ. LB. 2
CHICKEN BREASTS
BONELESS
PERFECT TRIM BREASTS TENDERS
LB.
CHICKEN SAUSAGE
STEAMSHIP ROUND ROASTLB.
JUICES 2/$
100% DOLE 5
ORANGE OZ.
TROPICANA
JUICES 59
SHREDDED OZ.
SARGENTO
CHEESES 8
RICHFOOD CHEDDARS
OZ.
AMERICAN SINGLES 12
2/$ 3 OZ. 2.98 AL FRESCO 12 OZ.
2.68 3.68
3.68 ASST. 3.98 750 ML. GRANDE
ITALIAN STYLE TOMATOES
JUMBO 35 OZ.
100% ALL NATURAL BONELESS
1.28 2.98
TORTILLA CHIPS
WAS 2.99 EA
MAKE SUMMER MEALS FUN…SEAFOOD, MEATS, CHICKEN BAKERY SHOPPE PERDUE BONE IN
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ENGLISH MUFFINS
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SIERRA NEVADA HOOK N’ LADDER 12.95
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1.68
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12 PAK BOTTLES
30 PAK CANS
12 PAK BOTTLES
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MUENSTER OR PROVOLONE
LB.
PERONI MOLSON HEBREW NATIONAL 11-12 OZ. PKG 13.95
4.98
CUPCAKE 9.95
NEW ZEALAND 2/$
SELECTED 6 PAKS WAS 3.99 EA
ARNOLD 3.19 EA
8PAK WAS
BREAD 2/2.98 2/3.98
3.99 EA
24 OZ. WAS
$1EXTRAORDINARY QUALITY…MODERATE PRICES…VEGGIES & FRUITS 1BUTTER /$
HORIZON ORGANIC LB. QUARTERS UNSALTED 5
UNIQUE DAIRY PRODUCTS...SAVE! SUMMER FAVORITES, BEER & WINE FULL SERVICE...OLDE FASHIONED "DELI" HOT ROTISSERIE
1.88 } 3.982
ASSORTED 1.5 LITRE
CALIFORNIA TRUCK RED
GLEN ELLEN 1 TO 6 FOOT SUBS PARTY & SANDWICH PLATTERS
CALIFORNIA SOUTH AFRICA
ESSAY ASST.
8.75 SWISS CHEESE OR
“BUTTERBALL” TURKEY LB
TURKEY OR CAPPICOLA HAM
LB
HOME ROAST SMOKED OR PEPPER
ITALIAN OR BLACK FOREST
5.88 5.98
CHICKEN BREAST 5.88 HAM
LB.
VIRGINIA OR HOME BAKED OR HONEY
LB. 4.88
STORE MADE S
CHICKEN OR SHRIMP SALAD
BRISKET 8.98LB
CORNED BEEF LB. 10.55 FRANKS OR KNOCKS 2/$ 6.98 5
TOMATOES LB.
FIRM VINE RIPE
SNO-WHITE CAULIFLOWER BABY SPINACH FANCY LEGACY RED PEPPERS RED WESTERN
77¢
SEEDLESS GRAPES LB.
RED GREEN PREMIUM
WAS 2.99 EA JUICY NECTARINES LARGE SUNKIST ORANGES JUMBO CALIFORNIA CANTALOUPES TROPICAL LARGE
1.98
MANGOES EACH
88¢ 2.98 99¢
TOMATOES PINT
MINI GRAPE
BING CHERRIES LB.
CORN ON COB EAR
SWEET WHITE 8/$
5
2 CUTS LB. HEAD
TRAY LB.
WATERMELON EA.3.88
SWEET SEEDLESS
PEACHES LB.
SOUTHERN JUICY LB.
EACH EACH
88¢ 1.28 2/$1 2.88
BROCCOLICROWNS LB.
NO STALK 98¢
1.98 1.98 1.88
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21 OZ. CANISTER
TOMATO JUICE TIN
SACRAMENTO
2/$3 2/$ TOMATOES 98¢
BOTTLE 46 OZ. 4
REESE PEANUT BUTTER 13 OZ. CHEERIOS YELLOW 14 OZ. LUCKY CHARMS 12 OZ. GOLDEN GRAHAMS 12 OZ. HONEY NUT CHEERIOS 12 OZ. “TOTAL” WHEAT 13 OZ.
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4/$ 4/$
GENERAL MILLS CEREALS
GRANOLA BARS
PKG. 6
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4/ $
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2/$ 11 OZ. 1
& PASTA CUTS 1 LB.
PRODUCT OF ITALY SPAGHETTIS
DAVINCI
WAS 1.75
$1
QUART STYROFOAM 6.95
MARINARA SAUCE
RAO’S GOURMET HOMELIFE
WAS 8.98
PINEAPPLES ASSORTED 20 OZ.SKIPPY
DINNER PLATES PKG 40 9 IN.
$1
BUTTERS 16.3 OZ.
$1PEANUT 2/$
9 OZ.
SNACKS 2/$
CHEX OR BUGLES 3 12 OZ. CAN SELECTED SELTZERSFLAVORS POLAR 3 2.98 2/$ 3
PITA CHIPS
STACY 2/$5 2.98 6-8 OZ.
CREAM WAFER ROLLS
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AUNT JEMIMA
12.3 OZ. PKG 10
3 RICHFOOD
LEMONADES VEGETABLES 98¢ 98¢
LIME & 12 OZ.
SELECTED 16 OZ.
SNIDER’S SUPER FOODS
since 1946 2 LB.
CRAISINS 6 OZ.
OCEAN SPRAY CELENTANO
Z
CRACKERS 12 OZ.
STAUFFER’S SOUP & OYSTER
6 2/$98¢
PARMIGIANA 6
STUFFED SHELLS OR EGGPLANT
14 OZ. 2/$ R 4 SUN OF ITALY
2.98 5/$ SPARKLING CIDERS2/$
8 OZ. CUP
GRATED CHEESES
750 ML.
APPLE JUICE 6.98 2.98
GOLD AWARD 10 OZ. • 9 PAK
SPARKLING LEMONADE 750 ML. BEANS
SELECTED 15 OZ.
4 MARTINELLI AWARD 5
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