From Westchester, With Eyeliner

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro is framing her campaign for the U.S. Senate around her New York credentials. Born and raised upstate, she’s got roots here. She’s a local – with local, rather than national – ambitions. But she’s got an even more effective factor with which to make her case. In her style, Mrs. Pirro communicates something essential about New York: tough, vibrant, sometimes excessive, and consciously attractive.


If she were to win the seat, could a fellow senator pass her on Capitol Hill and think that she hailed from, say, Montana? Not likely. With her knee-skimming skirts, impeccable make-up, and softer-than-helmet hair, Mrs. Pirro has a style pulse. In the same way that certain senators visually suggest their turf – Senator Lugar has the close-clipped haircut of a solid Indiana man, and Senator Hutchinson is clearly a yellow rose of Texas – Mrs. Pirro simply looks the part.


That’s especially true in contrast to her could-be opponent Senator Clinton. Much ink has been spilled on Mrs. Clinton’s appearance over the years. And she certainly has come a long way since the days of headbands and turtlenecks. But Mrs. Clinton pairs her vaguely New England visage with an aesthetic concept that Washington, D.C., understands: No style is good style. She relies on basic black pantsuits with brightly colored button-down shirts that peek out at the collar and cuffs. Sometimes there’s a preppy sweater thrown over the shoulders – over the suit-jacket shoulders, inexplicably. Sometimes, there’s a breakout outfit – like the red number she wore at the Aspen Institute in July. But mainly, the look is a reminder to think about the message, not the messenger.


It’s not a concept that Mrs. Pirro appears to dress by. As Westchester district attorney, she has long favored suits with skirts that fall anywhere from slightly below to above the knee. The colors of her suits range well beyond dark blue and black. In her official campaign photo she wears baby blue, and she’s appeared at public functions wearing shades of pink, cream, olive green, gray, and lavender. For her announcement speech last week, she chose a suit of standard navy, but she gave it the Pirro flair: The shirt beneath was low enough to show off her neck and the jacket’s collar was slightly turned up around her neck.


What’s more impressive is her level of consistent cosmetic splendor. Like Gwen Stefani, this is a woman who never appears in public without full make-up.


“She’s the essence of great grooming. I cannot recall one time when I’ve seen so much as one tiny hair on her eyebrows out of place,” the editor in chief of Shop Etc. magazine, Mandi Norwood, said. “The New York public is more discerning. Their expectations are higher than anywhere in America.”


For lipstick, she keeps to natural tones – shiny, not matte. The foundation is flawlessly even. Her eyes are rimmed with enough black liner to make Theda Bara turn in her grave. And it’s very hard to look at her photos without suspecting that there hasn’t been a touch of Botox on occasion. Not that it matters: Botox has almost ceased to be an issue on either side of the aisle. As Ms. Norwood points out, “You know something has hit the mainstream when there are Botox-type products in Target.”


Being heavy-handed with the eyeliner or too short in the skirt are not necessarily style crimes. In this case, it’s part of a look that Mrs. Pirro has chosen and maintained. It appears to express something of herself. Mrs. Clinton, by contrast, blends and adapts. So far, her strategy appears to be working: New Yorkers voted her into office. And on the job, she appears to be playing nicely with others in Congress.


Can voters glean something about the candidates’ work habits from their sartorial habits? That may be taking things too far. And there are an awful lot of elected officials who look like they could be from Anywhere, U.S.A. But when these two candidates in particular are compared side by side, the visual contrast plays right into Mrs. Pirro’s pitch. One candidate is polished, by way of Illinois, Massachusetts, Arkansas, and D.C. The other is brassy, by way of New York.


The New York Sun

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