There is now less than a week to go until the election of the next President of the United States. For months, the key issues have been debated, televised, and scrutinised; the political gauntlets have been well and truly thrown; and now the world waits with baited breath for a result. Much has been made of the rising costs of the candidates’ campaigns – and if we in Britain felt we were lacking in our offerings of (monetary) support, now may be the best, and indeed the only remaining time to make that move.

Obama’s “Runway To Change” collection has proved a profitable venture in both dollars and column inches, having attracted big-name designers to collaborate on exclusive designs for the 2008 election. Amongst the standard badges, posters and bumper stickers adorned with Obama’s picture and speech snippets are great finds from names such as Zac Posen, Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs – the slogan tees, in particular, reminiscent of the iconic taglines of Katherine Hamnett. Also available, although in increasingly short supply, are pieces from influential American artists such as Jonathan Hoefler and Robert Indiana. Michelle Obama, whose personal style has featured in both US and UK Vogue over the past few months, has also won invaluable press coverage for smaller but expanding names such as Thakoon and Maria Pinto through her choice of outfits for key televised events.

Although too early to deem Obama completely successful in his electoral campaign, such efforts to infiltrate popular culture will surely have made a critical difference in alerting young people to the key election issues. Whether it’s through a particularly heartfelt speech or a fabulously designed tote, politics is about attention-grabbing, and Obama’s Runway is definitely a tactic to be remembered.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.