Standing outside No 10 Downing Street after your spouse has just suffered a landslide defeat is presumably never going to be in any political partner’s top ten moments. But Akshata Murty, standing by (or near) her husband while he delivered his farewell speech, ended her 19 months as PM’s wife as she began it – using key moments to champion independent designers.
This time it was the turn of Indian label Ka-Sha – a striking high-necked graphic, red, navy and white cotton dress. A similar style is available to buy for £258 from Notting Hill Indian fashion boutique, Aashni + Co. She may have been standing slightly behind her husband, as is the custom, but this was no wallflower of a dress. It was bold, patriotic and nodded to her heritage.
It was all carefully thought out, as it needs to be in an age of merciless and instant scrutiny, where every stitch can be decoded – often wildly inaccurately and sometimes with damaging consequences. It’s not so long ago that Theresa May, newly elected as PM, was lambasted for wearing a pair of leather Joseph trousers. How very dare she spend her own money on something she liked.
Initially helped by Isabel Spearman, a former fashion PR guru who worked with Samantha Cameron in No 10, Ms Murty, daughter of a billionaire, quickly countered accusations of tone deaf extravagance, tempering her love of designer high fashion statements, particularly shoes, (Gucci loafers, Louis Vuitton platforms, JW Anderson mules, Red Valentino dresses) with more relatable but aspirational clothes from Me&Em, Boden, Jigsaw and Joseph. They were mostly British, sometimes Indian, but with the occasional foray into Parisian label, Sézane. There was a relationship with France that needed nurturing.
When the occasion required – the Coronation, state dinners – she went the bespoke route, seeking out classy tailoring from lesser known British labels such as Claire Mischevani. Everything was altered to fit her perfectly. She maxed out on colour without looking strident, quickly finding a dignified and polished style without subsuming her individuality to The Blob. The Ka-Sha dress was chosen without Spearman’s input.
What the women in No 10 wear matters to the extent that it can be a helpful tool to boost one of our key industries. British fashion generated £58 billion in 2022 and employs 1.5 million people in the UK but it’s under severe pressure from a series of challenges to the economy and the inexorable decline of high-quality manufacturing in the UK.
Yes, yes, of course the person with the real power needs to step up and understand how to shore things up. But giving British brands oxygen on the world stage is a start. Murty, who once launched her own label to bring Indian designers to a global market while paying the artisans a fair wage, hosted a lunch in Downing Street during London Fashion Week earlier this year. The lift this gave to the founders and designers who attended was real.
As a quiet but effective supporter of fashion, she will be missed. Perhaps Lady Starmer, also naturally stylish, can take up the baton.
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