The ladies who help Callista Gingrich spend thousands of dollars on her unfashionably conservative wardrobe are spilling on the 1-percenter shopping habits of the Gingriches. Callista and Newt are on a first-name basis with employees at the Neiman Marcus in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins reports. Despite their solemn duty to prevent the political wife from embarrassing herself sartorially, the shop girls prefer to lay the blame elsewhere. "Somebody just needs to shake her up, put a comb through that hair, and take a cloth to her face," one told Coppins. If not you, shop girl, then who?

The department store employees reveal a few more details:

• Callista really, really likes the extremely conservative and expensive label St. John's. When Coppins asked the employees if they'd seen Callista's speech last week, they said no, but snickered, "Was she wearing a red St. John's?" She was. (The Wall Street Journal's Christina Binkley explained the appeal of St. John's four years ago: "As a woman at midlife, I find that if I want notice, I must command it. Waiters can be slow to respond to my black Banana Republic pantsuits. But they 'ma'am' my St. John.")
• Callista uses a personal shopper. 
• Employees think her style makes her look way older than 46.
• Newt just reads a book the whole time.
• Callista is nice but "really stiff."

"Like many of their wealthiest clients, the employee said, Callista typically uses a 'personal shopper' to sort through the racks for her, find her the right sizes, and bring items to the dressing room for her to try on," Coppins writes. But Coppins, like a dude, does not report Callista's size. Or perhaps the sales girls wouldn't tell, as that would be too great a betrayal.

The Gingriches, conscious of the political ramifications of their shopping habits after getting so much teasing for their huge Tiffany's bill, tried to look a little more populist in December by campaigning in front of a store where Callista would never shop (pictured below). BuzzFeed reports they haven't been in Neiman Marcus since the campaign started.

(Photo via Associated Press.)

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Elspeth Reeve