First, I think the dress is actually a fashion disaster. But it would take too long, and I’d have to expose my inner couturier pedant to much too great an extent to explain why, (I suggest you don’t try me, or argue my creds here.)
Second, her gurning and posing are entirely counterproductive WRT the message I can only believe she’s trying to send.
One of the rules of high fashion (which we should all recognize, even those who profess our understanding of high fashion as an art) is that if you want to look fabulous “you wear the dress; you don’t let the dress wear you.” You “wear the dress” by sailing through the evening not paying the slightest bit of attention to those staring open-mouthed at your effrontery, and never once looking at the camera.
AOC repeatedly stops, mugs for the camera, and wants to make sure nobody misses the “statement” for which she’s volunteered herself as a walking billboard. Poor choices all round. And very low class.
And so ripe for parody. I see that coy little pose, and I think something more like this:
Ugly Dress. Ugly Woman.
Change my mind.
The effect is not enhanced by the story of the woman who’s standing next to AOC in the first photo. She’s Aurora James, the “designer” of the Tax the Rich dress. Apparently, she herself is a rich-enough (h/t Barry Obama) tax deadbeat, who owes more than $100,000 in employee payroll taxes, and other tax bills in multiple states. She’s also not up to snuff on her Worker’s Comp insurance payments (another $62,000 or so gone missing there), and her employees have also complained about working conditions at her fashion house and brokerage.
Thus is debunked yet another pretty little liar with a woke and appealing story.
It’s also reported that her company received “pandemic relief aid” in the amount of $41,666.
Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?
Don’t know if you were ever a fan of the 80s satire show, Spitting Image, but some folks have brought it back. And so far I’ve found it to be a gleefully equal opportunity mocker of all. In the 2nd episode of the 2nd season they gave this dress a cameo, but put it on UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and reworded it to read “Tax the poor”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKuCSGy4n-w
Like all good satire, their characters, while mocking their real life counterparts for their foibles, have an internal consistency within the satirical world. Patel is frequently shown as a witch, Boris as an oaf, the Labour leader as a snobby bore who puts everyone to sleep, Biden as utterly clueless, Kamala fervently hoping Biden dies (they gave her an entire song for that one), and so on.
I think my favorite recurrent character so far is Greta Thunberg.
I’ve never really followed Spitting Image, but know many who do, some of whom have sent me hilarious clips. Yes, the Greta Thunberg character is remarkably apt and true-to-life. Which is quite sad, really.