AOC Calls Out the “Performative Stupidity” of People Angry Over the Cost of Her Vanity Fair Photoshoot Outfits

As part of her cover story profile in Vanity Fair, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also had a gorgeous photo spread. She looks incredible on the cover, donning a white pantsuit from Black-owned luxury brand Aliétte, with more powerful looks from top designers inside. So naturally, plenty of people were excited to trot out the same old tired accusations of hypocrisy, criticizing the democratic socialist who wants poor and working-class people to earn a living wage and have access to structural systems of support, and who also dares to wear things beyond a simple burlap sack every moment of her life.

“AOC on the cover of Vanity Fair. The clothes are estimated to cost $14,000. So happy that AOC is upholding the long-established hypocritical tradition of Socialists who believe Socialism is for poor while they enjoy the fruits of Capitalism,” tweeted political commentator Sunanda Vashisht.

“AOC appears in Vanity Fair in outfits worth $14,000 to curse out Trump,” wrote Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.

The Daily Mail’s headline reads, “Socialist AOC appears in Vanity Fair in $14,000 of designer suits and Louboutins to call Trump a motherf****r for not paying tax – as she compares herself to Hillary and Pelosi (and gets to keep a $3,000 outfit).”

First off, that’s how fashion magazines work. Those aren’t her clothes. It’s a photoshoot.

Also, even if they were her clothes (as one of the gifted outfits now is), it wouldn’t negate her entire belief system. Republicans have been trying this line since before she even took office, pointing out that she went to private school in an affluent district (which her parents moved to and worked working class jobs so they could live modestly specifically so she could go to that school) and dressed nicely to her first days in Congress (in clothes she rented online).

They are so desperate to prove that she isn’t “authentic” because that seems to be the only way they know how to challenge her actual beliefs–to somehow “prove” that she cares about issues of class inequality as little as they do.

Honestly, I would love to know what they think an “appropriate” outfit for AOC would look like.

For everyone who’s mad that she wore a $1,000 suit (which is honestly the most reasonably priced item I can imagine ever appearing on a Vanity Fair cover), the congresswoman has some advice.

(image: STEPHEN MATUREN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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