Glenn Beck is a lot of things — author, radio host, conservative (or liberal, depending on the day) lightning rod. Now you can add women’s fashion designer to that list.
Keeping a vow he made to himself decades ago, the “Blaze” media guru launched 1791 Supply & Co. for women, a line of denim clothing inspired by his desire to dress regular ladies who are not shaped like runway models.
“My trouble … stems from the fact that while growing up my daughter was a dress size SMALLER than America’s most famous model and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe,” Beck wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“God forbid a designer makes anything cool that would fit her! Most American women are shaped like Norma Jean not the 12-year-old boy shaped models covering the walls of the ‘cool stores,’” he added, referencing Monroe’s birth name, Norma Jeane Mortenson.
What’s unclear from the post is exactly how his daughter being smaller than the voluptuous actress (who was at most a size 10), and thus more likely to reflect those “cool store” models, was a problem. Nevertheless, it caused Beck enough heartache to prompt a lifelong quest to create clothes for regular women.
“As I wiped the quiet and hidden tears away store after store as she was told, ‘oh, no, it doesn’t come in that size,’” Beck wrote, “I made myself a promise.”
Beck launched 1791 Supply & Co. — named for the year the Bill of Rights was ratified — in 2012 with two styles of men’s jeans. The ladies’ denim additions were “designed for and tested on all the girls” in Beck’s life.
The made-in-America brand runs in the $150 range.