When Lady Starmer arrived at Downing Street this summer, wearing a £275 dress from the British high street retailer Me+Em, she dominated the fashion headlines. Fans on social media took note; “I like her style”.
Appealing to the voting public? Hitting the right notes on price point, fit, colour and Britishness? Job done. But by whom?
In the weeks since, fashion pundits have wondered whether Lady Starmer was using the services of a wardrobe adviser (as so many of her predecessors did), or going it alone dressing for the global stage. A clue to the answer has come in the recent revelations that Lord Alli, a Labour peer, had paid for clothing and alterations for Lady Starmer, as well as the services of an unnamed personal shopper.
There have been suggestions that the shopping adviser in question might be Rebecca Clouston, as reported in The Times, a 58-year-old wardrobing expert from London. Renowned for her discretion (Clouston politely declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph) as well as for her diligence and friendliness in the notoriously frivolous world of fashion, the rumours that she has been offering advice to the PM’s wife in her new role are well supported by industry insiders.
“Rebecca really makes an effort to know and understand the needs of each individual client she is dressing,” says Barbara Horspool, the former clothing director at The White Company who first met Clouston a decade ago via the founder Chrissie Rucker. “She is strong minded and quick – she knows what will and won’t work for someone.”
Horspool describes first watching Clouston in action delivering a styling talk for customers at Selfridges, “in a very smart styling suite that had just been frequented by the Beckhams, over a glass of something bubbly.”
This balance of glamour and practicality seems to appeal to her clientele – a mix of high-profile figures in the public eye, and business executives who leave her rave reviews on LinkedIn.
“She knows how far to push people out of their comfort zone,” Horspool adds. “She’s very human. I like that about her, she’s not some crazy fashion stylist – she listens to people’s requirements with sensitivity.”
Clouston’s career began in 1987 as a buyer for the Bond Street department store Fenwick. After a decade there, she headed up Mulberry’s buying and merchandising teams, before founding her own personal styling business in 2003.
Clouston is able to host clients at the department store Selfridges where she is able to take them to use shopping suites. “I am privileged enough to be able to work with my clients in its discreet, beautiful and luxurious personal shopping space,” she describes on her website. She typically presents them with a mix of high street and high-end brands, as well as making a concerted effort to help them discover other small independent boutiques and labels.
Her ultimate goal, she says, is to “alleviate the stress and anxiety of deciding what to wear,” for clients. “I begin my process with a private consultation of up to three hours to get to know you better,” she describes. “Ideally this takes place in your home with access to your wardrobe and is an important step in order to understand your lifestyle and image goals. I work closely with you to reach our mutual objective of effortless style and improved confidence.”
For a public-facing figure such as Lady Starmer, much of the appeal in seeking advice from someone like Clouston will come from the fact she knows instinctively which fabrics look good on camera.
“Rebecca is good at knowing which dresses are flattering,” Horspool says. “Let’s face it, Lady Starmer is tall, slim and carries herself well with confidence, so any adviser is only going to make her look even better, or simply reduce the amount of time she needs to spend selecting clothes.”
Finding contemporary clothes that reflect the mood of change within Government, Horspool notes, would most likely be in Clouston’s theoretical brief.
“Fashion can be very playful and fun,” she says, “but what Rebecca does best is that she always knows how far to push it.”
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