The year 2002….. The Labour Party was occupying 10 Downing Street and the Tories were struggling to regain popularity. In one fine evening, the Conservative leaders were holding a meeting mainly to discuss their future strategies. Suddenly, Theresa May entered the meeting room and grabbed the attention of her party colleagues with her shoes. On that day, she wore leopard-spotted shoes with a black trouser-suit. Her fashion statement in a very serious political meeting surprised everyone.

Leopard-spotted shoes

Not only shoes, the British prime minister is famous for her fashion sense. Long ago, a journalist asked her what she would keep with her if she is marooned in an island after a shipwreck. May replied: “Vogue” (the fashion and lifestyle magazine). The magazine authorities really liked the answer and they often print her image on the cover of their magazine.
Unlike Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel, May has never restricted her fashion statement only in pant-suites. Her shoes, jackets, dresses and jewellery hit the news worldwide. The premier is well aware of her image as a fashionista. During the election campaign in 2017, she informed the press that her shoes inspired a young lady to join politics.

Once, she told Vogue: “Look, throughout my political career, people have commented on what I wear. That’s just something that happens, and you accept that. But it doesn’t stop me from going out and enjoying fashion. And I also think it’s important to be able to show that a woman can do a job like this and still be interested in clothes.”

May in saree

Not just a pair of shoes, suits and jewellery, the bold conservative leader is also comfortable in other outfits. She had attended the ‘Asian Business Awards‘ in 2015 in Salwar Kameez (worn by women from South Asia). Before that (in 2010), she wore a sleeve-less blouse and a sky blue-coloured chiffon saree (a garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately draped around the body, traditionally worn by women from South Asia) during an Asian women’s event. People found her in a cream-coloured South Silk saree during her visit to India in 2016.
Sometimes, her fashion statement invited criticism. The premier came under fire from her Tory colleague Nicky Morgan in 2016 after being photographed wearing a GBP 995 pair of brown leather trousers. “I don’t have leather trousers. I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on anything apart from my wedding dress,” stressed Morgan.

May in brown leather trousers

Later, May claimed that she didn’t purchase the trousers and she wore that for some time at the request of a garment manufacturing company. The PM also did not allow Morgan to enter her official residence for several months after the spat.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das