Given the blanket ridicule of his latest trainer choice, one could almost feel sorry for our super-rich Prime Minister. For anyone considering whether the much hyped, much-worn adidas Samba had peaked, that quick shot of the Tory leader in his white and black pair gave a knowing nod: Yes, it’s over. The man has even apologised.
Merely months ago Vogue’s new head girl Chioma Nnadi was hailed with the moniker “the devil wears Sambas”, her favoured shoe choice underscoring her as Condé Nast’s cool new catch. Never has a fashion cycle felt so brutally sharp. Diplomatically, when questioned on Women’s Hour over her shared sneaker preference with the PM, Nnadi offered that: “It’s not about who’s wearing it, it’s about how you’re wearing it. Sambas are a classic, I don’t think they’re over.”
Sunak has form when it comes to unwittingly wading into once fashionable waters. From his City boy cropped trouser furore and Prada loafers to the extraordinary Palm Angels sliders, not forgetting his pandemic-era grey cashmere hoodie (over a shirt and tie), his kryptonite trend touch definitely has range. Sambas aren’t even the first sports shoe he’s put the kibosh on. His £335 Common Projects sneakers, alongside colleagues Liz Truss (in Reiss) and Matt Hancock (in Vejas, shudder) were a veritable triumvirate of doom for the white trainer which had been a straightforward win for the style set.
Levels of viral abhorrence are perhaps a useful insight into popularity levels. Keir Starmer is also an adidas fan, albeit he’s not been seen in Samba but there wasn’t nearly as much horror when he stepped out in them as Sunak. SW1 really is where cool goes to have a serious lie down.
Getting dressed for Downing Street is admittedly a thankless task constrained by our Little Britain attitude to fashion, where expenditure on style is seen as a moral failing. Recall the hysteria over Theresa May’s £995 Amanda Wakeley leather trousers she wore in a magazine feature which prompted very unsisterly sniping from Nicky Morgan. The ex-education minister quipped: “How am I going to explain this in Loughborough market?” and was promptly banned from No10. Karma came for Morgan in the shape of her very own (£950) Mulberry Bayswater, which was used to replace her when she pulled out of Have I Got News For You. It was, in the tradition of Thatcher, a real handbagging.
May has always been something of an aspiring style plate. During her tenure she was a constant point of reference for those of us on the front line of the fashion beat. There was a definite period where no mention of leopard print could be made without at least a cursory ribald remark in the direction of her kitten heels; or indeed her penchant for a power necklace. We ditched those for layered piles of single chains instead, obvs.
David Cameron notably chillaxed in his off-duty dad garms and helped bring middle-class ridicule to fans of Orlebar Brown’s £225 jauntily-printed swim shorts (also worn by Tony Blair) as well as Converse All Stars. Jeremy Corbyn’s retro Wilson shell suit might have held sway on Kingsland Road but his own advisers banned him from wearing it in public. All attempts to get with the trend cycle do seem to elude them. Are you still triggered by William Hague’s self-monikered baseball cap? Does irony make a noise when it dies?
Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband thought they would be celebrated for wearing Elle magazine’s This is What a Feminist Looks Like slogan T-shirt, but sadly when it emerged that female factory workers were allegedly being paid 62p an hour to produce the tops (which was denied by the charity behind them), they were left looking distinctly off-key. As was Gillian Keegan, who after telling teachers to get real with their pay demands, was spotted sporting a £10,000 Rolex. Let them wear Swatch!
While American politicians tend to have more of a glossy finish, at Donald Trump’s inauguration Kellyanne Conway threatened to derail Gucci’s flashy Alessandro Michele makeover when she wore a coat from his British-themed collection which had been unveiled at a show in Westminster Abbey. Similarly I’m not sure any of us could look at a pussybow blouse in quite the same way again after Melania wore a hot pink iteration at her husband’s second presidential debate post “grab-em-by-the-pussy” gate.
Across the political aisle, Barack Obama’s denim choices were recently used as a barometer of the uncool in a New York Times essay on the au courant width of trousers — if Obama says slim leg, then trendsetters go wide, and vice versa. Your politico-fashion take home? They might make the rules, but never stay within their style red lines.
