Michellemania Creates a Tank-Top Seller
First Lady-inspired "Right to Bare Arms" tanks flying off shelves
By LORI PREUITT
Updated 10:54 AM PST, Mon, Jun 8, 2009
The First Lady's fashion sense has turned a tank top into a big seller.
A certain tank top is flying off the shelves at Made in Santa Cruz on the Santa Cruz Wharf, a tourist attraction in the California beachfront town.
Dohna Dunderdale, the store's owner, already stocked a top that proclaimed "The Right To Bare Arms" as a play on the Second Amendment, but a former employee came up with the idea to turn it into a pun on Mrs. Obama's habit of showing off her toned triceps.
The president used the same pun in one of his jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner event in Washington, D.C. last month. He said Michelle was standing up for the amendment by "baring her arms."
Mrs. Obama became a fashion icon even before she moved into the White House. Most of the reaction from fashionistas is positive, but she did take a little flack when she dared to go sleeveless last winter.
Dunderdale used photo-editing software to put the tank on the first lady in an attention-catching image that now hangs in the front window. Many passerbys are noticing and walking in to buy the shirt, which sells for $19.95, says Dunderdale. You can buy the shirt online.
The tank tops are printed locally at Barrios Unidos, the Santa Cruz nonprofit. Dunderdale told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that she has sold about 85 of the tank tops so far.
First Published: Jun 8, 2009 10:00 AM PST
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