Maybe Ann Romney should wear less expensive clothes until election day

Surely Ann Romney knows how to dress, having been the wife of a corporate executive, Massachusetts governor and Mormon church elder. Tall, slim and athletic, she is the type of woman who looks good in whatever she wears, from jeans to power suits to ball gowns. What she does not know as much about—and no one does who has not been in the unforgiving eye of a presidential campaign where every word and gesture is microscopically examined — is what to avoid wearing until Election Day.

“I don’t think anything is off limits realistically,” former Laura Bush chief of staff Anita McBride tells me. “Somehow when it comes to these women we talk about a lot, maybe too much, about their clothes. However, having said that I really care much more about the government is spending my money than the way Ann Romney spends hers.”

Until now, Mrs. R. has done just fine without the advice of a fashion stylist. But if I were in her shoes (and we’re definitely not talking pricey Jimmy Choo or Christian Louboutin stilettos here) I’d play it safe and frugal for the duration. No recognizably exorbitant clothing, no ostentatious bling, no fur, no foreign designers. In fact, she should probably wear a couple of favorites three or four times to disabuse voters of the notion that she has endless closets in her multiple homes.