Madonna in the $2,800 sweatsuit. The Huffington Post has a better photo of the outfit
Madonna has come under a lot of well-deserved fire for jetting into poverty-striken Malawai with the intention of adopting a little girl, Mercy, who has a living grandmother who was hoping her granddaughter could stay in the country. If the adoption goes through this will be the second time Madonna has flouted Malawian adoption laws, which require adoptive parents to stay in the country for 18 months. In 2006 she adopted David Banda, who has a living father who could not afford to keep him. Madonna is starting schools, funding orphanges, and helping Malawai monetarily, but does that mean that she can leave with a child despite the objections of their family and the fact that she’s breaking the law?
The Huffington Post points out a minor detail that seems to highlight the glaring issues of class disparity in this case. Madonna wore a Chanel sweatsuit to tour an impoverished school in Malawi. The sweatsuit was worth $2,800, more than ten times the average yearly income in the nation:
Madonna arrived in Malawi Sunday morning on her Gulfstream V in her bid to adopt a toddler girl named Mercy.
After arriving she toured an impoverished school but refused to talk to reporters. She was, in the words of the AP, “dressed casually” in a black velour tracksuit and white fedora. But that casual look costs about $2,800.
A look at the photos shows her dressed-down attire is a Chanel tracksuit, tone-on-tone labels blazing from her shoulder and the stripes down her leg. Huffington Post placed a call to the 57th Street store in New York Monday with a casual inquiry, and a helpful saleswoman priced a similar ensemble at $2,800.
A zip front jacket is $1,600 and the pants about $1,200. A cheaper alternative to the one Madonna wore in Malawi is the $1,200 pullover jacket. Currently the store is stocking the velour in gray. They also have the tracksuit in cashmere for several hundred dollars more. Chanel clothing is not available online.
[From The Huffington Post]
Of course Madonna can wear whatever she wants, and she’s rich so she’s entitled to buy a sweatsuit worth enough to supply water to several villages. There are two schools of thought on this adoption. One is that Madonna is bringing awareness to the conditions in Malawi, that she’s spending money to ensure that things change, and that little Mercy will have a comfortable, privileged life with her and opportunities that she could never dream of if she stayed in Malawi. The other side is that Madonna is so insulated from the realities of the world that she thinks that she is just as entitled to a child with living family as she is to an insanely overpriced outfit.
Mercy is now staying with Madonna her three children and a nanny in a luxury lounge outside Lilongwe. David Banda, 4, saw his biological father for the first time in perhaps three years yesterday. David’s father told the press that Madonna canceled a scheduled meeting with him during another visit to Malawai two years ago, although some reports have him meeting David briefly at the time. The judge ruling on Mercy’s adoption has postponed her decision until Friday, but it’s easy to predict that Madonna will get her way. She usually does.
Photo credit: Fame Pictures
she has got to be the most clueless, arrogant, selfabsorbed, blatantly in your face me me me c…. in the world. the audacity and self entitlement that oozes from her pores are toxic. and the world plays along.
As always-money talks and bullshit walks.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Maybe Ma should lay off the GooP!
At least Jolie and Pitt make contributions to the countries from where they adopt from! Who has Ma helped besides herself? …Answers anyone!?
Really, the HP comes across as incredibly petty here. Madonna is a hugely wealthy woman, what was she supposed to do, go cheap & cheerful for her visit?? What rubbish. Had she dressed down, I’m sure she’s have had charges of manipulation levelled at her.
That Madonna. She’s got class out the butt.
She is none of the above judging by her generosit and spirit of giving to these desperate people. Such petty things people find to hate about. It’s her money and her business what clothes she wears. Does this negate the millions she has poured into the economy of Malawi? Also, David is now adopted…it’s not a given he has contact with his biological father…but he is and people are still complaining.
Her make-up team was on sabbatical I guess- yeee-ouch !!
I don’t care how much she spends on clothes the same way I hope strangers don’t care how much I spend on clothes. But I do hope she can give a needy child a happy and safe home. She has the means to help others and it appears she is doing just that. Yes, she seems selfish in many ways but I have no problems when celebrities adopt children.
She has yet to adopt an orphaned child, she just buys children from the malawi government.
Let’s say Maddonna isn’t allowed to purchase this little girl. Do you think she’ll “sponsor” her, so that she can live with her grandmother and stay out of poverty, or do you think she’ll just “adopt” another child?
She is sickening!
classic. that is dressed down for her tho. it’s not like the villagers would even know this.
Everything Madonna does is selfish, self-aggrandizing and self-promoting, including her Malawi missions. She knows no other way of being. I feel sorry for any child brought into her household. Imagine for a moment what it must be like to have a flotilla of ever-changing “help” raising you while she’s off making what some might consider music, recording, touring, working out obsessively, etc. etc. Imagine for a moment not being able to just go to a park, eat a hamburger, play with the neighbour’s kids, have a real childhood. Sometimes it’s not just about the money and lifestyle you can bring to a child, it’s about a quality of life and love that doesn’t necessarily involve a ton of material stuff. I remember Diana going on African tours for her land mines charity and she didn’t wear Chanel, she wore a plain shirt and jeans.
Those cheek implants are horrendous…they are so large that you can see the outline of them. She’s now looking a lot like a fellow plastic surgery victim, Priscilla Presley.
Just awful.
Azurea: I agree. The top half of her face looks swollen and squished together.
But she shows such heartfelt sensitivity to the plight of those who face unimaginable poverty and hardship.
I hope this puts her narcissitic intentions under the pure light of day once and for all. First-class phoney.
I’m beginning to wonder how many of these kids are actually ‘orphans.’ A lot of them are adopted and then their relatives pop up. I am beginning to wonder if some of these kids are getting kidnapped from their families and then the govenrment or orphanage contacts the star informing them of this cute kid they just happen to have.
Didn’t some of these stars pick their kids out of a photograph(q)
The relatives don’t bother with these orphanage children until someone comes along who wants to adopt them. Then they smell money and come out of the woodwork…why can’t the Granny take the girl now? Are her finances going to be so much better when Mercy is 6?—–hardly.
If I had a copy of Madonna’s “Sex” book I’d Fed-Ex it to the judge in the adoption case, overnight delivery.
She just doesn’t seem to get that children from impoverished villages in Africa are not collectibles to be bought and flaunted. Does she even consider these people real human beings, just like her?
The fact that she strolled around in a suit that costs more than these people make in a decade, and found it appropriate, makes me think “no.”
She does not come off as benevolent, well-intentioned or generous- instead she is presenting herself as the epitomy of wealthy arrogance and celebrity ignorance. Children are not accessories and PEOPLE who are malnourished and poverty stricken are not opportunities for a good PR photo.
And on another note, those massive cheek implants are doing nothing for her.
Giz – If I’m not mistaken, I think she started a foundation to help Malawi.
I hope she is genuine about helping these kids. What I mean by this is that I hope that when the cameras aren’t around, she treats her adopted children the same way she treats her bio children. I’ll go even further as to say I hope that behind the scenes she treats all of her children well and that its not just for the cameras and publicity.
wow – re: “[I hope] she treats her adopted children the same way she treats her bio children”
I bet she does, Child meet your nanny, Nanny meet the child. Now I’m off to pump iron and inject more shit into my cheeks!
IF she adopted ACTUAL ORPHANS I might see this in a different light. However, she does NOT. And that’s wrong.
I agree with the majority of people…she is sickening. She should not be allowed to “purchase” another child at all. If she really wanted to help this little girl….help the grandmother keep her and raise her. Who says she will be better off with Madonna?? Brought into a broken home to be raised by hired help while Madonna parades a string of young men through her home who are young enough for her daughter to date? Would that really be a better life for this child. Unfortunately the reality is that money does talk….and that really bites!
maybe it’s just me, but i find the fact that madge is wearing military pants and combat boots in africa kind of inappropriate. and her face is getting scary-looking with the extra padding…she really should stop.
She really should have gone for smaller cheek implants. A decent plastic surgeon would have selected the appropriate size for her face. The thing that bothers me the most about the adoptions is that it seems ‘trendy’ and while no-one can be certain about her motives, that one is the most offensive.
It reminds me of Joan Crawford and her adoption of Christina, Christopher and the twins, all of whom eventually grew to hate her.
I agree — she should be able to do whatever she wants with her money.
What bugs me is how sanctimonious celebs get about everyone else’s situation. She’d probably be one of the first to criticize a bank CEO making a few mil a year, yet she has little enough sense to see how ridiculous she is for traipsing over to Malawai in a freaking Chanel tracksuit.
I think the above-referred “outline” of the cheek implants is actually the implants along with a string cheeklift, like they did her neck tightening. It’s kind of a “pulling up the blinds” type concept only it’s inside your face.
She should’ve dressed down for this trip in something not in the Commando range at Lord & Taylor.
Also, she’s got a tummy pooch. I surely do hope she’s not pregnant with a baby Jesus ……… 8|
i 100% agree with lola
I don’t care much for her outfit choice – after all, she is Madonna. And often, celebrities get bagged on for their clothing, regardless of what they’re wearing. So no, that’s not the issue. But what strikes a chord is the fact that she’s supposedly adopting a child and is facing resistance. It doesn’t seem fair that Madonna can just swoop into a country and take a child away – even if she does mean well.
Living family? In Malawi, IF YOUR MOTHER IS DEAD YOU’RE CONSIDERED AN ORPHAN. The father is incapable of caring for the child. Unless an aunt or grandmother assumes responsibility for the child, he/she is an orphan. With a dead mother, infant mortality rises by 60%! David Banda is an orphan.
god i hope somebody kidnaps her and holds her for ransom.
Wow. So much hate. I’m the first to carp at Celeb ninnies but I don’t think it’ s warranted here. She’s got so much money, does anyone actually think she remembers how much all her clothes cost? She probably got it for free anyway. She’s mega-rich, so she should wear rags to Malawi? Ridiculous.
She shouldn’t wear rag but is Chanel the only alternative? The woman is the biggest fake ever lived.
The families just drop them off at the orphanage and when someone with money appears to nwant to adopt them then all of a sudden they remember they have a grandchild there?? Please. Madonna is not buying those kids but I am sure there are those in here that would rather see those kids grow up hungry with rags and no education just to make themselves feel like they are know it alls. The hatred of you people is amazing ,listen to what you are saying and then slice and dice someone who has helped these people??? What have YOU done for anyone other then yourselves? You cant afford a 2800 dollar outfit? Well tough ya cant sing either or act or you may have had a career like she did and earned this money to buy what she wants.
Why not wear that? That’s probably where it came from at the 12 cents an hour slave labor workshops. I’m sure she’s just proudly showing off their handywork that’s all.