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Like anyone cares? I would not shake this assholes hand let alone be in a picture with this scumbag ...
Flip-Flops At White House Cause Stir
July 18, 2005
By JODI S. COHEN and MAEGAN CARBERRY, Chicago Tribune
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=storydetail vAlign=top>Before visiting the White House, Kate Darmody carefully planned her outfit. She bought a sundress from Ann Taylor. She put on a strand of white pearls.
And then she slipped on flip-flops to meet the president. So did about half of her teammates from the national championship Northwestern University women's lacrosse team, invited to the White House last Tuesday after a 21-0 season.
<TABLE style="CLEAR: left; MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e6e4e1" width="10%" align=right><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle><!-- Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=courant&color=none&edition=newspaper&content=features&channel=lifestyle&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 -->http://adserver.trb.com/event.ng/Ty...http://www.courant.com/classified/realestate/ <!-- img ad style --><!-- /Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=courant&color=none&edition=newspaper&content=features&channel=lifestyle&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>She didn't think twice about the footwear until she got an e-mail - in all capital letters -from her brother.
"YOU WORE FLIP-FLOPS TO THE WHITE HOUSE????!!!!" he wrote after checking out the picture on the team's website.
Aly Josephs' mother had the same reaction after seeing her daughter in the front row of the photo - the fifth person away from the president - wearing brown suede flip-flops with a skirt, sleeveless top and matching beaded jewelry.
"Don't even ask me about the flip-flops," her mother said when a reporter questioned her about the picture. "As somebody who is 52 years old, it mortified me. I don't go out of the house without pantyhose on."
Twenty- and thirtysomethings will pair flip-flops with everything from shorts to cocktail dresses, wearing them at work and at clubs, for a stroll down Main Street or even down the wedding aisle. For their moms, the shoes - best known for the flapping noise they make - are meant for places like the beach.
One of the hottest trends this summer, flip-flops are no longer a dime-store purchase, with some costing several hundred dollars. They come flat and with wedge heels. They have rhinestones and sequins and flowers.
In today's laid-back society, is there a distinction between ratty old flip-flops and ones from Neiman Marcus? Can they be worn at the White House, perhaps the most formal setting in the United States?
Shoe expert Meghan Cleary, author of "The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say About You," says no. In her chapter on flip-flops, where she weighs whether "to flip-flop, or not to flip-flop" for particular occasions, she would add a White House visit to the "not" category.
"For me, flip-flops are just not for a formal occasion," Cleary said. "But meeting the president, maybe this really speaks more to the worldwide acceptance of the flip-flop."
But the Northwestern lacrosse team members, dressed in skirts and dresses, thought nothing of it. Of the nine women in the front row with the president, four wore flip-flops. The rest wore heeled sandals.
"Nobody was wearing old beach flip-flops," said Josephs, 20, who wore $16 brown, flat flip-flops with rhinestones, one of about 15 pairs in her closet.
Darmody, 22, who decided on a wedge-heel flip-flop, said: "I tried to think of something that would go well with my outfit and at the same time not be that uncomfortable. But at the same not disrespect the White House."
She said that from May to September, "that is all I have on my feet all the time."
The teammates, and their athletic director, commented several times that it was actually the University of Michigan's national-champion softball team - in khaki shorts, polo shirts and sneakers - that was way underdressed.
But etiquette experts generally thought the flip-flops also were out of place.
Even Joe Guidry, a salesman at the upscale Stuart Weitzman store on Michigan Avenue, said he wouldn't advise women to wear the company's $150 flip-flops to the White House. "Meeting the president? I personally wouldn't wear them," he said.
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy wouldn't comment on whether the White House has a dress code.
Tribune staff reporters Michael Kilian and Christi Parsons contributed to this report.
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