Acting all offended is not a good look, Nicola
TO Planet Fashion, to check i n with the First Minister, who seems pathologically incapable of staying in one place at the moment – whether it’s dashing off to China or doing a chat show in New York, or smiling awkwardly on a train with the Queen as Prince Philip gazes out the window looking like he’d rather be in, well, China.
Nicola Sturgeon, you see, is now a Vogue model. Showing off two separate designer outfits, one a short and daring Christopher Kane dress, the other a knitted Holly Fulton sweater (both are Scottish designers), she poses stylishly at her official Bute House residence for photographer Benjamin McMahon for a seven-page feature in the fashion bible.
If that were the end of it, that would be fine. Giving interviews to Vogue is a very American thing to do, but it has served some of the United States’ most senior female politicians well, including Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, who both looked stunning and were treated with kid gloves by the top fashion mag. First Lady Michelle Obama has appeared on the cover of US Vogue twice.
A little artlessly, however, Miss Sturgeon’s Vogue pictures accompany an interview in which she criticises the constant commentary on what she’s wearing as intrinsically sexist. I see. Maybe we’ll read more about that when she gives the follow-up interview to Women’s Wear Daily.
There is a dichotomy here. What, exactly, is she trying to say? Here I am in a designer outfit but don’t dare make any comments about it? Sorry Nicola, but I will comment on your appearance: you look super.
She says also that the majority of the commentary on her appearance is written in ‘the most hideous, quite cruel way’, and worse than what her male counterparts receive. I’m not sure I entirely agree with this. Nicola is well-liked in Scotland, both by the Press and the public.
The bulk of what is written about her is positive and well-meaning. Compared to her predecessor Alex Salmond, who was constantly lampooned for his weight, receding hairline and curious penchant for Saltire-themed ties, she does pretty well.
And she does looks fantastic, and has done for some time, with her trim dresses from Edinburgh designer Totty Rocks and her smart heels and coiffed hair. Yet she insists there was ‘no grand plan’ to all this, until the exasperated Vogue writer remarks: ‘One almost feels ready to say “Really, it’s OK to have made an effort”.’
Yet at the same time here she is in Vogue, clearly making an effort.
There’s a whiff of do as I say, not as I do about Nicola that I find disquieting. Or perhaps she’s still battling against her own n public image – the fact that she does look good (sorry), that she e is in the public eye, , and that these two o things inevitably lead d to commentary and calls from Vogue magazine.
My advice, Nicola, is to just embrace it – and d stop playing the sexism m card.