Maria Pinto Closes Chicago Boutique. What's Michelle Obama to Wear? (M's designer goes bankrupt)

The StyleList ^ | February 15, 2010 | Lesley Kennedy

[Stoat]

Maria Pinto Closes Chicago Boutique. What's Michelle Obama to Wear?

by Lesley Kennedy  Posted Feb 15th 2010 at 4:26PM

 

(Image not included due to Free Republic rules pertaining to Getty Images)

Even designing dresses that turned Michelle Obama into a fashion trendsetter couldn't keep Maria Pinto in business.

The designer has closed the doors to her Chicago boutique, reports the Chicago Sun-Times, and she is expected to seek bankruptcy protection this week.

Pinto tells the Sun-Times "economic challenges and soft buying trends at the top end of the apparel market" contributed to her business woes. 

''I am confident that the 'Maria Pinto' name will not go away, but will merely take a break, before emerging in a new form," she tells the newspaper. 

"I plan on using the next several months to explore different avenues and opportunities for business, as economic conditions improve."

In addition to dressing Obama (see the purple sleeveless sheath dress she wore for the final primaries?), Pinto's customers also included Oprah Winfrey and several Chicago socialites and civic leaders.

Pinto studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and New York's Parsons School of Design and Fashion Institute of Technology, and worked for Geoffrey Beene in her first fashion job. In 1991, she launched her own line, which was carried in stores including Bergdorf Goodman, then she opened her Chicago boutique in 2008, according to the paper.

And, if there's any debate on Michelle Obama's style power, here's a look at her first 100 days of fashion.

[ETL]

Look at the eyes in this pic...dead, evil.

That actually was a cropped close-up of this pic below. No photoshop whatsoever. I don't even have the program or know how to use it.

______________________________________________

[patriot08]

They’ve been photoshopped a bit..but I read Big Mo’s feet are a size 11 or 12.

[ETL]

[patriot08]

I know. I’ve seen it before. Just pointing out the dead, evil eyes.

[Albion Wilde]

Here's the squirrel story.

[Albion Wilde]

I read Big Mo’s feet are a size 11 or 12.

So were Jackie O's.

[patriot08]

Wow. Didn't know that.

[Albion Wilde]

I’d have to go with Jackie.

While Jackie did have the corner on glamour, it came at an enormous price of rumored to have been a million dollars in 1960s money for a designer wardrobe. JFK's father was said to have paid her "hush money" to preserve his son's political career and keep her married to Jack despite his numerous affairs.

The Washington newspapers frequently reported criticisms of her spending behavior, materialism and elitism; and and tradespeople who worked in the White House at the time gossiped about her "hangers-on" in the White House whose decadent behavior supposedly revolted JFK, such as a poet who made little cuts on his wrists and dipped his pen in the blood to write his poems. I heard that and other stories as someone who grew up in DC, and whose congregation and family members worked in trades such as chauffeuring, Secret Service and painting contractors to the WH. Working-class people, while invisible to elitists, still have eyes and ears.

She was the first FLOTUS since Mary Todd Lincoln (who was known to be mentally ill, apparently with bipolar disorder) to spend lavishly on her wardrobe and on big-name designers. The public at the time chattered about Jackie's un-American aspirations to European aristocracy, which she then demonstrated by marrying billionaire Aristotle Onassis, who, however rich, also was unfaithful to her. Only after her divorce from Onassis did she redeem herself, as a caring widowed mother with a job as an editor in NYC. Her daughter seems to have both feet on the ground; yet her son took up the torch of narcissisim, decadence and privilege and paid with his life, and that of his bride.

[Albion Wilde]

Ping to post 188.

[Ocarterma]

Point taken, time to make contact with Palin’s people, convince them Cuda needs an image makeover-—think that’ll fly???

[patriot08]

interesting. Thanks

[Palladin]

Rahm: A thing of beauty and a boy forever.

[Palladin]

Fascinating. You should write a book.

[Palladin]

Reminds me of “Upstairs,Downstairs.”

My ancestors were also “downstairs” people amongst the elite of NYC. One elderly couple were cook and gardener at the J. Pierpont Morgan estate on Long Island. Others worked at the Manhattan homes of families that were in the NYC social register. (This was circa 1912 to around 1932.)

I wish they had written down their experiences.

[Albion Wilde]

Thank you, Palladin.

[CaliforniaCon]

Belly up, eh? Well, guess that’s what happens when you only have ONE customer!

[1010RD]

This must be from the Rorschach Test line of clothing.

[Viking83]

While Jackie did have the corner on glamour, it came at an enormous price of rumored to have been a million dollars in 1960s money for a designer wardrobe. JFK's father was said to have paid her "hush money" to preserve his son's political career and keep her married to Jack despite his numerous affairs. blah blah blah

She was the most attractive first lady that the US has ever had. My libido knows no political party.

Are you the conservative Perez Hilton?

[Albion Wilde]

She was the most attractive first lady that the US has ever had. My libido knows no political party. Are you the conservative Perez Hilton?

So you're saying, if you would hit it, her politics, influence and character don't matter?

[Viking83]

So you're saying, if you would hit it, her politics, influence and character don't matter?

"Hit it"? That is so ghetto.

Let's just say that I think she was the most attractive first lady I've ever seen. I don't care what her political opinions were.