Theresa’s best kept SECRET
Peasant-style clothes — at a princely price!
THERESA May is photographed striding through a muddy field, beaming with happiness in the latest issue of U.s. Vogue.
Her cheerful demeanour could have something to do with being pictured by the world’s most famous celebrity photographer, annie Leibovitz, for the world’s most famous fashion magazine.
But most probably that triumphant grin has a lot to do with what she’s wearing.
For that covetable, £ 450 slouchy red canvas coat and £1,200 grey cashmere jumper are not just plucked from a High street rail, but come from British label Egg — one of the most discreet, cultish labels in fashion — a fact that would not be wasted on our self-confessed fashion-following Pm.
In fact, the label is so far under the radar that few people outside the rarefied circles of the aristocracy and the arts have even heard of it.
started by fashion and ceramics designer maureen Doherty 15 years ago, Egg is known for its clean lines, sculptural shapes and luxurious, raw fabrics. many of the voluminous linen dresses, jackets and coats are based on the designs of old peasant garments.
all rather ironic, when you look at the price tags.
there’s nothing remotely serf-like about splashing out £450 on the Henry coat mrs may wore in the Vogue shoot fashioned from canvas handwoven in tibet, or the gaspinducing £1,200 for that grey jumper designed and made in London from cashmere so high-grade it can be popped in the washing machine and emerge unscathed.
EVEN floppy straw hats, which make the wearer look as though they should be tilling soil in a thomas Hardy novel, start at £140. of course, much of the brand’s success is in the loose fit of these clothes; they’re designed to skim over curves and flatter a middle-aged stomach.
When you visit Egg’s boutique, tucked away in a converted dairy in a backstreet in Knightsbridge, London, you start to see why it’s popular.
Voluminous, raw linen dresses in varying shades of blue hang from hooks on the walls, as if they were pieces of expensive contemporary art.
Cashmere samples in rich, jewel-like colours are presented in an antique wooden box. Linen trousers with tie-waists (£260) are arranged artfully on oak benches.
For Egg isn’t just about buying something for your summer wardrobe, it is about investing in maureen’ s particular taste. these are the sort of clothes the architects in the BBC’s the Replacement would (literally) kill for.
It’s why the bohemian aristocratic set, actresses (maggie smith is said to be a fan) film- makers, authors, designers and architects are devoted clients.
maureen, who worked for the Japanese minimalist designer Issey miyake for 20 years, says she was ‘ so happy’ to see theresa may wearing her clothes in Vogue, not just because of the flurry of international interest, but because mrs may looked ‘so comfortable and at ease’.
‘my clothes are not for women who follow fashion, but for women who are happy in their own skins.’
and by the looks of that smile on mrs may’s face, maureen might have won herself another rather high-profile client.