Icebreaker coup on Palin cover girl shoot

How do you solve an environmental problem like Sarah Palin? By sticking her in some clean, green Kiwi-made clothes, apparently.

Palin, who rose to fame last year when she ran for the US vice-presidency with the Republican Party, appeared in Newsweek magazine last week wearing a red Icebreaker top.

Palin is notorious for her support for oil drilling and posing with a rifle over a dead moose. Icebreaker is a New Zealand company specialising in eco-friendly clothing. The two are an incongruous fit.

But Icebreaker managing director Jeremy Moon said the top had worked wonders for Palin, who recently released her memoir, Going Rogue.

"The fact that Sarah Palin looks hot and intelligent on the cover of Newsweek is testament to the transformative power of New Zealand merino against the skin," he said.

Moon joked that Palin had been a fan of Icebreaker "ever since she applied to be our Alaskan sales rep".

"We put that in our newsletter in the US and several Americans complained that we were deflecting her from national duty," he said.

Palin caused many an outcry during last year's campaign, including when she announced that her teenage daughter was pregnant. Further scandal hit the Palin camp when it was revealed that the party spent nearly $150,000 on clothes for her and her family.

There was, however, no suggestion that any of the cash was spent buying Kiwi-made.