Clothes Maketh the Man… Or Woman

First let me state loudly and clearly that I do not like Theresa May… OK, I don’t actually know her, so this sounds like a hell of a judgement call. Let’s just say that I’m absolutely not in her camp, politically, and, ethically, I’m not thrilled that we have an unelected Prime Minister. We were asked if we wanted out of Europe, but not who would represent us if we decided to withdraw.

This post isn’t about politics, though. Generally, I’m either preaching to the choir or I’m surrounded by hatred, so politics is taking a bit of a back seat on the blog.

Today, I am standing in defence of Ms May.

Theresa May, leather trousers and The Sun's response

Yesterday, I saw a number of articles about Theresa May’s clothes, in particular a pair of leather trousers that she wore to have her photograph taken for a newspaper.

The trousers were leather. They looked good to me, but the point of the piece was that the trousers were very expensive. People don’t like that our Prime Minister is wearing trousers that might have cost close to a thousand pounds.

Would I spend a thousand pounds on a single item of clothing? Well, I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t. I know for a fact that my husband has spent that kind of money on very special items of clothing as gifts for me. Yes, it sounds preposterous, but I love clothes, and I keep them for decades; I’d never class myself as any kind of fashion victim.

That’s me though, or it’s you, or it’s dozens of women that I know who have the money and like to look good.

Of course, I’m not the Prime Minister.

It’s all about appearances, and it seems to me that there’s a terrible double standard at play.

Apparently, the majority of this nation wanted Brexit, and one of the reasons they wanted it was so that we could take a bigger role globally, stand on a larger stage, and be taken seriously as an international power.

The heroes of the Brexit movement, such as they were, were Messrs Johnson, Gove and Farage. 

Where do you suppose those gentlemen shop for their clothes? Where do you suppose that Tony Blair bought his suits? or Nick Clegg? who always seems to look better in formal wear than any of his contemporaries and colleagues.

An entry level, off the rack suit costs around a thousand pounds at Gieves and Hawkes, via their internet shop. An entry level bespoke suit starts at four and a half grand, and the skies the limit. Theresa May’s colleague, Boris Johnson might not be known for his sartorial elegance, but do you imagine for a moment that he doesn’t use a good Saville Row tailor to make his suits?

The difference is, of course, that we don’t judge men by the way they look… Or do we? Michael Foot might have been the most accomplished politician of his generation, but that Donkey Jacket did him no favours. Jeremy Corbyn’s casual approach to dressing has also been talked about. Can we take him seriously if he’s scruffy?

Tony Blair might be the epitome of this standard: a good-looking, elegantly dressed man who brought New Labour to power. We didn't talk about his suits, though, did we?

Men, and definitely male politicians have a uniform that they can rely on. They stick to the dark suit, light shirt and tie, and nobody thinks twice about it. Some of those suits cost five or six… or ten grand, but we don’t talk about that.

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister modified the male approach, but stuck to a uniform of a two-piece suit in dark colours. She was already an expensive dresser when she became an MP; thanks to her wealthy husband she could afford to shop wherever she wanted to. She had numerous hats and expensive handbags, and then there were those pearls, of course. Do you know what a string of pearls costs? We’re talking thousands.

Margaret Thatcher was never ostentatious, though. She wore the same uniform as her male counterparts, her hair was coiffed, and kept in the same style for decades, and she was not beautiful, unless you happened to think like Francois Mitterand.

It’s all about sex, in the end, as it so often is with women. Thatcher wasn’t sexy, but she spent a lot of money on clothes. She was of her time, and she could be taken seriously, because she wasn’t pretty.

We can all imagine Theresa May having sex. She wore those leopard skin ‘fuck me’ shoes way back in 2002 at the Conservative party conference, and got noticed for them. 

Margaret Thatcher was taken seriously despite being a woman, but it was because she played the game like a man. It’s also because we were actually more respectful thirty years ago;  more respectful of achievement, and of authority.

Theresa May is lambasted, because she is a woman. We live in different times. If Theresa May made the same sartorial choices now that Margaret Thatcher made more than thirty years ago, she’d be laughed out of existence. If she dressed like Mhairi Black (whom I not-so-secretly adore) she wouldn’t be taken seriously on the International Stage that we’re all so keen for her to inhabit.

Do we really want our leaders, those who represent us in the World, to shop on the High Street? Don’t we want them to be impressive? Don’t we want them to be taken seriously? Isn’t image part of that? Isn’t image, increasingly part of that in our celebratory obsessed culture?

In my mind, Theresa May can do no good, politically, but I have no problem with her dressing for her role. She always looks good, and she clearly enjoys clothes. A stylist might want to adjust her look a little, calm it down, make it a little more ‘conservative’, but at least they’ve got a great canvas to work with, and, if she’s still dressing herself, she's saving us money on a stylist and a whole new wardrobe. We talk about Theresa May’s clothes because we notice them. I don’t have a problem with that, but clearly others do. It’s much harder to notice men’s clothes.

Those who wanted Brexit, those who still believe we can wield significant power on the World Stage can’t have it both ways. In a World where status matters, Theresa May can’t pop to her local Debenhams and shop for bits and pieces in the sale. The men don’t do it, and it’s a double standard to expect May to do it.