Lisa A. Kline, Sarah Palin's Stylist Speaks Out: Defends Clothing Costs, Did Not Work With Katie Couric

Lisa A. Kline, Sarah Palin's Stylist Speaks Out: Defends Clothing Costs, Did Not Work With Katie Couric

Today's New York Times has an interview with the woman behind Sarah Palin's campaign makeover, which resulted in a well-dressed candidate and a $150,000 scandal.

Stylist Lisa A. Kline (not to be confused with the L.A.-based designer Lisa Kline) is a 47-year-old Manhattan mother of three and self-employed stylist who specializes in corporate executives and TV news personalities (however, "she is not, as Ms. Palin's book suggests, Katie Couric's stylist," the NYT reports. "She has never met Ms. Couric.")

The approximately $150,000 for the Palin family's clothing "was not as outrageous as it seems, Ms. Kline insists, considering the scope of the job," reports the Times.

Regarding her own fee of $54,900, reported in campaign filings, "it also covered an assistant and some expenses." Kline defends this fee because the job was last-minute and "it's very hard to put a figure on a 24-hour day."

Of the infamous shopping spree at Neiman Marcus before the Republican National Convention that resulted in designer clothing for the entire Palin clan, Kline says the store opened at 7am for just her and her stylist, where they spent 90 minutes running around gathering clothes. When the purchases were rung up she wasn't asked for payment. "Apparently it had been prearranged," she told the New York Times.

The convention was Kline's last interaction with Palin.

Ms. Kline says she never saw or communicated with Ms. Palin after the convention, although she prepared a "look book" for her for the campaign trail, with photos showing how to put together outfits. Ms. Kline avidly followed Ms. Palin's appearances on television, but as soon as the politically damaging news of the designer wardrobe broke on Oct. 21, Ms. Palin stopped appearing in the clothes, Ms. Kline said.

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