American vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says the US$150,000 in clothes and accessories bought for her by the Republican Party don't belong to her.

She equated the high-priced wardrobe with the stage equipment at campaign rallies.

Dogged for days by the brouhaha over outfits from upscale stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, the Alaska Governor yesterday hit back, saying she and her family lived frugally.

To emphasise her point, she wore jeans at an event in Asheville, North Carolina.

"This whole thing with the wardrobe, I try to ignore it because it's so ridiculous," Governor Palin told a Florida crowd earlier in the day.

"Those clothes, they are not my property, just like the lighting and the staging and everything else the Republican National Committee purchased," she said.

"I'm not taking them with me. I'm back to wearing my old clothes from my favourite [secondhand] shop in Anchorage, Alaska."

Governor Palin talked about her accessories - given to her by her husband's Yup'ik Eskimo mother, and "a US$35 wedding ring from Hawaii that I bought myself".

The expensive clothes are a contrast to the image being promoted of Governor Palin as an average "hockey mom."

In North Carolina, the candidate was joined by country artist Gretchen Wilson, who performed her song Redneck Woman.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain yesterday rejected suggestions that Governor Palin is hurting his campaign.

"I don't defend her. I praise her," he said. "She is exactly what Washington needs."

Senator McCain also dismissed criticism of the shopping spree.

"She lives a frugal life. She and her family are not wealthy. She and her family were thrust into this ... "

Tracey Schmitt, Governor Palin's campaign spokeswoman, said a third of the high-priced clothing had been returned after the Republican national convention in September, and "many of the remaining clothes have never been worn".