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Fall fashions and lipstick sales have been affected by both the presidential campaign and the shocking news on Wall Street. 

Senator Barrack Obama used a cliché about putting lipstick on a pig and suffered that reference because Republicans claimed it was a pejorative aimed at Governor Sarah Palin. Palin had used lipstick as the difference between pit bulls and hockey moms.

Republican women have been shown on TV and in print waving their lipsticks as a means of support to vice-presidential candidate Palin.  If Senator Obama had used a cliché about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, the handbag industry could have been in the limelight.

We have asked retailers and cosmetologists in New York if that controversy hiked sales of lipsticks.  So far, there has been no spike in sales, a beauty category that has been in its own recession for several years.  Lip glosses continue to do better, say retail sources.

Politics aside, Palin has struck a nerve on the multi-tasking roles of working mothers, who as consumers have been buying fewer cosmetics and apparel.  Instead, they have been paying more for gas and food and have been underwriting the lifestyles of their children.

On Wall Street, huge job layoffs will more than likely affect the high-end retail scene as Lehman Brothers will enter bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch is acquired by Bank of America.  Tens of thousands more jobs will be cut in New York’s metro area.  This will hurt fourth quarter retail sales.

The past ten years have been enormously profitable for the investment banks and hedge funds.  Their affluence has set a high bar for conspicuous consumption, and those on Main Street have little pity on their plight.  As the blood runs on Wall Street though, consumption patterns will become more cautious, and beauty marketers will have to carefully gauge how they sell their products.  Restaurants, second (and third) homes, and school tuitions have already been affected with the demise of Bear Stearns.

Much of the wealth of Wall Street execs are tied to the stocks in their companies.  Even though Merrill was saved, its stock is down by 70 percent or so over the past several years.  Lehman Brothers has a great deal of over-priced commercial real estate and other assets that are being marked down. 

At the same time, consumers are selling or wearing the clothes in their closets.  Older consumers are de-stocking many of their pricey knickknacks and heirlooms, selling them at auction or online.  These are indeed strange times.