Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

I assume that someone from the campaign headquarters of Dennis Kucinich had a hand in a Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reporter’s following Elizabeth Kucinich around shopping at Cleveland resale shops.

Sounds like she found some bargains, huh? Maybe she read about the joys of shopping consignment and resale at HowToConsign.com, our consumer-friendly site.

Campaigning for a bargain
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Evelyn Theiss Plain Dealer Reporter

Even a gorgeous, slim, 6-foot-tall redhead can have wardrobe issues.

Consider Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. In recent weeks, she’s attended a wide range of events, from an afternoon garden party for Queen Elizabeth at the British Embassy in Washington to a protest rally for arrested Mexican immigrants in Painesville.

How does one dress for such a varied and intensive travel schedule, under budget constraints and close public scrutiny? Rather than fall back on designer handouts (which are not allowed by campaign rules anyway) or splurges at Saks, the environmentally and socially conscious Kucinich has a fall-back strategy that is unusual for someone who’s judged by her appearance daily.

Her tailor-made solution? Shopping at resale and consignment stores.

“It’s a matter of priorities,” says the 29-year-old Brit, who spent her late teens and early 20s working in economically deprived villages in India and Africa.

“I think it’s always better, and much more fun, to pick up real bargains,” she says. “These stores are a microcosm of all the fashions out there.”

Kucinich recently reached out to The Score to help her find resale dresses to wear on the campaign trail with her husband, concentrating on the West Side of Cleveland, where the Kuciniches live — and in the right congressional district, too. We went along for the tour, which stopped after a mere two stores because she found many treasures right away.

An affinity for resale

While Kucinich will occasionally shop at Macy’s or at Marshall’s, she has always embraced the idea of clothes that are not brand-spanking new. While growing up in an English village about an hour from London, Kucinich enjoyed checking out what are known as “charity” shops in the U.K. — our version of resale stores. They were plentiful in her hometown Essex area, but vintage and consignment shops are not as common as they are here.

Her main criteria (besides fit, of course) is versatility. “Can things be mixed and matched, and dressed up and down? Can they take me from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.?” she asks herself as she shops.

To meet the Queen, Kucinich wore flowing black pants and a ruched sky-blue silk blouse, but this dressy look is not always the norm. She spends a good deal of her time at grass-roots rallies or neighborhood meetings — where she wants to look stylish but feel comfortable, too.

So many choices

There was much for her to choose from at Designer Consignor in Lakewood and Closets. A quick observation: When you’re tall and lean, most things fit and, well, pretty much everything looks good. It’s more a matter of winnowing down your choices.

Within four hours, Kucinich had narrowed her choices to an impressive assortment of attractive, flattering clothes that would outfit her easily through her busy schedule.

At Designer Consignor, she ended up with a long, light-blue linen skirt ($4), perfect for summer days; a deep blue silk cheongsam with subtle bamboo design ($20, which she already wore on a daylong trip to Boston and “it didn’t wrinkle at all”) and a sleeveless lavender floral dress (Laundry by Shelli Segal, originally $235, for $35).

At Closets, she found a strapless magenta cotton dress ($24), originally from the Express, that could easily go to a cocktail party. To dress it down for daytime, she bought a white denim jacket with magenta embroidery ($14). For other evening looks, she scooped up a black strapless organza ¤’50s-style formal by Scott McClintock ($39) and a Ralph Lauren floral silk dress ($48).

Kucinich says she’s now set for clothes for quite a while and was happy to connect with Cleveland’s resale scene.

“The people who own the shops are just lovely, and they and the people who give or sell their clothing to the shops are all local,” she says. “So when you shop at these stores, you’re supporting the community.”