Tributes to the celebrated designer for the rich and famous after his recent death have focused on his role in dressing Hillary Clinton and softening her image. His most notable designs for her included a burgundy velvet gown she wore on the cover of Vogue, which retailed for about $4000.00 at the time, off the rack. Her personally designed and fitted glitzy gold lace and sequined gown and matching coat for her husband’s second inaugural likely cost mrs than $15,000, judging by his publicly available prices. Other gowns worn by Hillary were likely in the $4000 to $10,000 range. And her signature pants suits for every day and special events – like her swearing in as Senator would have cost more than $2000 each.

The Clintons say that they met the designer when he came through receiving line at a White house event and was pleased to see Hillary wearing one of his “off the rack” designs. Todays “off the rack” prices at Nordstrom range from pats for $1000 to belts for $900 and dresses from $200-3800. On his own website, the ready to wear range from $6500 to $13,000. But Hillary Clinton isn’t wearing the designs on the de la Renta site. Hers are special orders, which are far more expensive.

So how did the dead broke Clintons afford the over-the-top designer clothing? Hard to figure how anyone living on a pre-tax salary of $200,000 at the time could afford tens of thousands of dollars of expensive clothing – even without paying any of the normal costs associated with living, such as rent, car, insurance, electricity, etc. ( Taxpayers covered those costs) Especially given the burdensome mortgages for her more than $5 million in houses and the school tuition for Chelsea that she said was so difficult to meet.

But maybe she didn’t have to fit those luxury items into her budget. Maybe they were just more items she felt entitled to and considered as “gifts” from friends that were unreported.Seems like there’s different definitions of “dead broke.”