A little more stimulus, please. Michelle Obama’s fashion designer goes belly up

Cash-for-Clunkers was a fiasco. But don’t be surprised if the President tries to stimulate the economy with a new program called “Cash-In-Fashions.” It’ll be a program where you’ll get a new dress when you bring in an old one that can be recycled.

As the New York Times reports, this kind of drastic action may be necessary because the First Lady’s personal fashion designer is closing her doors:

Remember the purple sheath Mrs. Obama wore the night of the fist bump heard round the world? The teal number at the Democratic National Convention? Or the red dress she wore to meet the Bushes on their way out of the White House? Maria Pinto all, designed right here where both women were born and raised and, over the course of one remarkable election, became stars.

So when Ms. Pinto abruptly put up a “closeout sale” sign in the window of her West Loop boutique and announced that she was folding her fashion business, Chicago — and Pinto devotees all over — reacted with disbelief: What in sartorial heaven happened? “I pushed as far as I could,” Ms. Pinto, 53, said in her first lengthy interview since the demise of her store and wholesale operations in mid-February.

Just back from a month’s break in Barcelona, she pointed to the strain that a sour economy had placed on her business just as it was expanding and gaining major traction beyond a loyal Chicago following.

We love this wacky storyline that says Michelle Obama is the new Jackie Kennedy. Her huge booty have been home to some of the worst outfits ever seen on a First Lady.

Maybe Pinto can get a job as a census worker. We hear they’re having trouble filling those jobs.

Source: New York Times