Categories: opinion

PM May being praised for her sartorial taste

With the General Election only days away the Prime Minister is embracing British style, her dress code is uncomplicated, individual and admired by fashionistas; for the April edition American Vogue sent the iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz to snap her at ease at Chequers, the Camp David equivalent for UK Prime Ministers. May is a wonderful ambassador for designers and clearly enjoys fashion, she said to Vogue “…it’s important to be able to show that a woman can do a job like this and still be interested in clothes”. May has brought style into politics and fashion is important to the UK economy, the British Fashion Council and Mintel predict that Ready to Wear womenswear sales will grow to £32billion by 2020.

Theresa May is quite adventurous in her sartorial taste, favouring sharp suits for the working woman, femininely dressed up with an elegant scarf from Megan Ferris, an art student, or from luxury brand Hermes, worn with her trademark kitten heels and clunky necklaces. Geometric, blocks of colour and funky cuts are signatures of Theresa May style.It is remarkable and commendable that May wears her outfits more than once;unabashed she has a fondness for red (red is traditionally the colour of the Labour Party),she appeared in this weeks’ Sky News Q&A in the Amanda Wakeley scarlet suit that she wore at the G20 in China and to meet Donald Trump in Washington. Although many designers feature in the May repertoire Amanda Wakeley’s “clean glam” style is a perennial winner, “bad girl” of British Fashion Vivienne Westwood is her pet for tartans and Roland Mouret’s asymmetric neckline dress has twice been a Conservative Conference choice. Coats and pant suits are from Daniel Blake and LK Bennett, the entrepreneurial Icelander Linda Bennett is a born fashion professional whose no-nonsense prints and tailoring appeal to May. May’s shoes and boots vary between Russell and Bromley, Dolce and Gabannaor Beverley Feldman; famously there is always a delightful quirkiness to the PM’s footwear, it looks like leopard-skin or is shocking pink or has silver tipped toes; occasion hats are from Liz Felix and bags from Anya Hindmarch. During campaigning for the General Election, foreign labels such as Escada, Paul Ka, Diane von Fursten burgand Max Mara have taken a back seat; the PM has been stomping the streets canvassing in jeans and ballerina flats or personally telecanvassing at Conservative Campaign HQ in Westminster.

No fashion advisor or personal dresser will get a gong from Theresa May, who does her own shopping atFluidity boutiquein Henley-on-Thames in her constituency of Maidenhead, they are said to telephone the PM when something suitable comes in.

Most UK mainstream newspapers regularly compliment the PM’s fashion sense; Laura Emily Dunn founder of the blog Political Style is a regular reporter on May’s attire and has created a A-Z commentary and source book of May’s professional and casual wardrobe.

Antonia Filmer