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Oprah is scary. There's no denying it. She essentially runs the foremost happy cult in America, surpassing even Martha Stewart at her pre-prison height of popularity. So it's not odd, we guess, that her devotees want to buy all types of tchotchkes with her menacing "O" logo stamped on them like a gang sign for suburban women. But is it really necessary to orgasmically revel in the sweat-stained experience of wearing her old clothes?

The Times describes the portion of Chicago's "Oprah Store" devoted to items of clothing supposedly worn by the godlike talk show host herself—shoes pants, suits, and who the hell knows what else.

"The feeling is, Oprah had this on, and now, I'm wearing it?" Ms. Hoy explained over lunch near the store last week. "When you go in there, you just feel great, like you are somebody, like Oprah is touching you."

Ms. Hoy was so moved by the experience that she bought a $40 cream-colored blouse that she may never wear out of the house, mainly because of the tag, which says: "Harpo Inc. hereby certifies that the item to which this tag is attached is a genuine garment from the closet of Oprah Winfrey."

Some of the items, admittedly, have never been worn. It seems that Ms. Winfrey is like everyone else when it comes to impulse purchases and occasional overstock. But Ms. Hoy was thrilled that her purchase showed slight underarm stains, proof positive that Ms. Winfrey's underarms had been there.

[NYT]