Hillary Clinton’s $3,500 Purse Overshadows Birth of Her Grandson, Aidan

Hillary rocks a leopard-print coat with her Ralph Lauren purse. (Photo: SplashNews)

Proud grandparents Bill and Hillary Clinton arrived at Lenox Hill hospital in Manhattan Sunday, and all eyes were on … Hillary’s handbag? And she wasn’t even carrying her $3,500 Ralph Lauren calfskin purse; it was being toted by an aide. As reported in the Daily Mail and other outlets, the extravagance didn’t end there. New mom Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, paid upwards of $1,700 or more per night to stay in the high-end hospital, news sites reported.

The afterthought in all this coverage? Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky, the couple’s second child and the elder Clintons’ first grandson, born at 7:41 a.m. Way to bury the lede.

But it’s not surprising that exorbitant spending would be highlighted in the story. The press seems to come down hard on the Clintons’ extravagant lifestyle. As reported by Yahoo Style, the presumptive Democratic nominee received criticism in the recent past about wearing a $12,495 Armani jacket during a speech in April, in which she discussed budgetary concerns including her plan to close the wage gap in America. And in April, she was criticized for carrying a $1,645 Alexander McQueen handbag to an appearance on The View.

Bill and Hillary leaving the hospital after meeting their grandson. (Photo: AKM-GSI)

It almost seemed as if the Daily Mail were baiting readers, who commented, “Hillary can relate to the middle-class by carrying her $3,500 bags and wearing her $13,000 jackets … PULEASE!,” and “I can’t see your average Democrat voter purchasing $3,500 handbags!!” Some came to Clinton’s defense, saying “Disgusting comments on here. The family welcomed a new child into the world. You point the finger at Hillary while tearing down the celebratory birth of a new baby. Humans can be so vile.”

Clinton has been trying to rehabilitate her formerly pantsuit-dominated public look though, as reported by Yahoo Style. She hired image consultant Kristina Schake, “who was supposedly tasked with making Clinton more relatable and formerly worked with Michelle Obama.” Clinton is likely paying for her own wardrobe.

But the Yahoo Style story pointed out that presumptive Republican nominee (and noted billionaire) Donald Trump continues to hit the campaign trail in pricey custom suits, while his model wife, Melania, wears many of the same pricey duds as Clinton — and neither of the Trumps receives quite the same criticism as Clinton.

As Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine succinctly put it in an article for Time, “It seems inevitable, if unfair, that when a woman is vying for a prominent position in office, her outfit choices will be analyzed to a degree considerably higher than those of her male counterpart by simple existence of gender stereotypes.”

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