As the new guard takes over at No 10, the new Labour women have established their new uniform. Arriving at Downing Street with the newly anointed prime minister, Victoria Starmer wore a red dress by Me+Em. At the vote count the night before she had worn a white cropped jacket by the same brand. Angela Rayner also doubled down on Me+Em last week, wearing a green trouser suit to No 10 on the day she was appointed deputy prime minister and an orange dress at Keir Starmer’s inaugural cabinet meeting.
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Was there a group chat? Did Vic give the word, or Angela? Were they in adjoining fitting rooms? It can’t be a coincidence that the unified front extended to their wardrobes. Too flashy and the headlines are Marie Antoinette stuff; too cheap means sweatshops. Me+Em ticks the fashion box but doesn’t overdo it. The clothes are well made, in good fabrics, cut well, and even the florals aren’t naff. They’re not cheap — Starmer’s moving-in dress was £275 and that white jacket £295 — but they are more relatable than Theresa May’s £995 leather trousers and David Cameron’s £3,500 suits.
The Conservative way for Carrie Johnson, meanwhile, was floral mididresses from Ghost and a rented wedding dress to flex her environmental credentials. Samantha Cameron had gone one step further, creating an unofficial Tory working woman’s uniform in Cefinn.
Getting the clothes just right is absolutely crucial. Yes, frustratingly less so for the men, although Starmer’s £200-odd glasses have already been price-checked, but vital if you’re trying to avoid the wrong sort of headlines — like this real example: “Why did Liz Truss wear the same outfit as a fictional fascist?”
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There isn’t anything so controversial to be found at Me+Em. Started by Clare Hornby in 2009, the label created corporate-appropriate but not corporate-looking tailored pieces that became staples, like the slinky trousers with sporty side stripes and elasticated waistbands or the blazers that draped over shoulders rather than padded them. They were grown-up clothes with a casual sensibility. That was even more appealing during the pandemic years, and with about 90 per cent of sales happening online, Me+Em’s growth gathered pace.
The rise of the company can’t have been hampered by the number of high-profile women who have supported it. It’s had the royal stamp of approval from the Princess of Wales, her mother and her sister, who have all worn it; Queen Camilla and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh both have the same green floral mididress with a drawstring waist. Then there’s Me+Em’s thespian fans, including Katie Holmes, Lupita Nyong’o and Helen Mirren.
By 2022 the brand was valued at £130 million, and a £55 million investment led by Highland Europe put America in Hornby’s sights. She opened her first three US stores in the New York area in spring (maybe Kamala Harris’s wardrobe is next).
Hornby grew up in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, selling second-hand Italian shoes on a market stall in Oldham as a teenager. Her mother was a teacher, her father the MD of a building company, and she went to Saddleworth School comprehensive, then Manchester Metropolitan University. In her mid-fifties, she’s a few years older than Victoria Starmer, with two daughters about five years ahead of the Starmer teens, but close enough to want similar things from her wardrobe to the prime minister’s wife and the women of the new cabinet.
Hornby’s interiors taste may provide a blueprint for a Downing Street overhaul too — a look inside her family’s newly renovated west London home in 2022 showed the Farrow & Ball classic neutral Dead Salmon on the walls, Seedlip alcohol-free botanicals mixed in with spirits on the bar shelf, Aesop products lined up in the bathroom. Expensive, well made, but not flash or gaudy — like her clothes.
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There’s a Labour connection too: Hornby’s husband, Johnny, was one of the admen behind Tony Blair’s 2001 election campaign. But there’s no red wall around Me+Em; the family split their time between Westbourne Grove in London and the Cotswolds, where Johnny bought a stake in Hawkstone brewery alongside Jeremy Clarkson, a member of the famous Chipping Norton social set that includes the Camerons and big Tory donors the Bamfords.
This new Labour look is a little bit yummy mummy, especially the green floral dress that Starmer wore to the races last week. Add to that a pair of plimsolls — which is very much the look at Me+Em — and you’re ready for the school run to any of the posher school gates in the country. Yet it’s more low-key than Johnson’s version of the same: the new soft power dressing isn’t trying so hard. The fit is looser, less prim, more relaxed (an aesthetic that will probably be echoed in the living quarters in Downing Street, although they’ll wince to rip out that Lulu Lytle wallpaper if it has survived this long). The styling is simpler, down to the heels: Starmer’s kitten heels on the way in looked so much cooler than Akshata Murty and Lucia Hunt’s skyscraper pairs on the way out, the latter nipping out of shot as Jeremy and the kids posed on the road outside No 11 to walk on the less treacherous pavement alone.
We can expect to see most of Me+Em’s latest collection on parade as the dust settles. A sage green utility jumpsuit for Victoria Starmer’s weekends, or the caramel pinstriped tailoring — hopefully someone has added our new chancellor to the group chat, so she can reinvent the classic pinstriped suit so beloved of moneymen. It helps that on-brand “poppy red” is one of the label’s standout colours of the season. There’s only one no-go on the whole website — I don’t think any of us are ready to see another pussy-bow blouse at No 10.
