Stylist Phillip Bloch might not like Sarah Palin's politics, but he's quick to leap to her sartorial defense. "Image is everything," he opined at the Central Park Conservancy's Halloween Ball at the park's Naumburg Bandshell last night. "To give her a hard time about spending $150,000 on the wardrobe — she didn't make up the prices, she didn't hire a big stylist and say get me the most expensive things." Although he approves of her look — "chic and elegant; age appropriate" — he said he wasn't sure the RNC absolutely had to blow that much money on it. "Her stylist should've asked for a discount," he said. "If she were working with me, I would've gotten her a discount." Bloch, an active member of the Creative Coalition, said he already is reserved to go to the inauguration ("I'm going for Barack, I hope"), although he's not sure what he's going to wear.

He does have some suggestions for Michelle Obama: He's thinking Carolina Herrera or Oscar de la Renta. "Michelle, call me!" he yelled into our tape recorder. "I will hook you up, girl. I will not charge." He's even got a slightly off-color nickname for his First Lady pick. "Forrest Whitaker's wife and I always joke about this," he said. "We were at the convention and I said, 'Oh, girl, you're looking like Jackie O!' And she said, 'Hell no, baby, I'm looking like Blackie O.' When I say this, I don't want this to come out as I'm making a derogatory remark, but Blackie O: in the White House!'"