Perfecting the business of power dressing
After six years at No 10, Isabel Spearman is an expert at dressing in style for the corporate world. Charlie Gowanseglinton meets The Telegraph’s new workwear columnist
Ithink it can come across as being frivolous, what I do, and what fashion can do for women in a professional capacity,” says Isabel Spearman, picking her words carefully. “But what you wear to work can make a huge difference – not just to how you’re perceived, but to how you feel.” Spearman is a brand and image consultant, advising (mostly female) professionals working at senior levels in the corporate, often unforgiving, world. “They’re at a point in their careers where they need help with image: they’re suddenly doing lots of public facing – speeches, presentations, pitches. My job is to make sure that they feel confident in whatever they’re wearing so they can focus on the work.”
First, she interrogates a new client’s working environment: do they travel extensively and, therefore, need a wardrobe that can be thrown in a washing machine, not full of dryclean only dresses? Or spend most of the time around a meeting room table, where in reality the top half is mostly on display? Then comes an assessment of the client’s existing wardrobe, to test her comfort zone and analyse what works well on her body shape. (Spearman suggests every woman should analyse their own power outfit to assess whether it’s the fit, colour or fabric that makes them veer to that instinctively before a difficult day at work – and then replicate it). Then she puts together suggestions that help to create a wardrobe worthy of a modern, outward-facing career woman.
Some might see styling as a depressingly singular place to start for women hoping to boost their careers – but it would be naive to ignore the fact that, given first impressions are made within three seconds of meeting someone, we communicate through our clothes. (And, given the latest Forbes’ Fortune 500 list recognised only 32 female CEOS in America earlier this month, arguably women need all the help they can get navigating the maledominated corporate world.)
“I think what’s important is that clothes empower and reassure you; not to feel – ashamed is too strong a word but –frustrated by putting together an outfit,” is how Spearman puts it, arguing that if you’re not worrying about whether the dress you’re wearing is too short you can focus on the job. But if you are? Well, she’s here to help, with a new weekly column in the Telegraph dissecting workwear dress codes and offering a modern take on power dressing.
Spearman is singularly qualified for the job, having started her career at accessory brand Anya Hindmarch and honing her craft in what is quite possibly the most public of arenas: politics. She spent six years working in Downing Street as special adviser to then prime minister David Cameron’s wife, Samantha – a role that saw her overseeing the de facto First Lady’s charity work, foreign trips and media handling, as well as helping put together a wardrobe that was fitting for a global stage. (Sometimes that meant nipping into Zara for some emergency tights; other times coordinating with Michelle Obama’s team on the dress code for a state dinner at The White House.)
“I suppose it was creating a brand, the ‘Sam Cam’ brand,” Spearman reflects. “It was taking things I learned from those years in fashion, from a branding perspective, and putting them into action: a lot of what we did with Sam was imaging, and making sure that she came across the way that she wanted to come across.”
There’s no denying that thinking through your outfit is important – especially when the whole world is watching. You only have to look at the way people overlaid the Queen’s blue and yellow hat with a pro-eu message last week, or the furore caused by those leather trousers worn by Theresa May, to realise the potency – and perils.
On the latter, Spearman is sympathetic. “I do think you should make the most of what you’ve got, and May has got fabulous legs,” she laughs. “That’s my take on it! She dresses brilliantly, in a very safe, strong way, which is how she is.”
But she also acknowledges that the style challenges facing only our second female prime minister are different from those that David Cameron faced – little more than a jibe about some dodgy beach shorts every summer.
“David cared what he wore in the way that it had to be appropriate for the job he was doing, but he wasn’t too fussed about bad press on holiday because he had more important things to think about,” she explains. “I think he found it quite entertaining.”
Is it right that women in politics are judged by their wardrobes in a way that men aren’t then, I ask her? Spearman is pragmatic: “As long as
the tabloids want to write stories about it, I don’t think there’s any way of avoiding it. I think as a woman in the political field you have more choices of what to wear; therefore, you are slightly more newsworthy and you have to be quite careful. No, it’s not fair – but I’m afraid that’s where we are.”
It’s a lesson Spearman learnt first-hand when she went to work at Downing Street – and found her own wardrobe under scrutiny. “I definitely had to tone it down a little bit,” Spearman says of leaving the fashion world for an environment where wearing lipstick was considered making a statement. “In time, I actually enjoyed dressing in a more corporate way because you could just go to work in a nice dress and heels and not have to worry too much about whether your outfit was in vogue that month.”
Still, Spearman says finding style advice for working women who wanted to look professional but not dull – not to mention the pieces themselves – was tricky; hence her starting up her consultancy firm. “My clients probably don’t want to wear Celine – they want to wear a really well-cut trouser, dress or suit that will fit in, but that they feel great in.”
In her arsenal are a multitude of Joseph blazers, heels you can walk in and well-cut dresses that travel well (though she always has a clothes steamer to hand). Perhaps unsurprisingly, she cites Samantha Cameron’s label Cefinn as a perfect source for the latter. “But I am completely biased, of course.”
As for what a working woman should always keep in her desk drawer? “A spare pair of tights, because there is nothing worse – well, of course there are many more things worse but if you have to go into a big meeting and you have a ladder in your tights… well, that’s a sure-fire way of killing your confidence.”
Even in the corporate world, however, Spearman insists there are times when you can up the fashion ante. As evidence, she recalls a meeting with the team of Carla Bruni, the former French first lady, about a forthcoming trip to Downing Street by Nicolas Sarkozy, the then president. “It was just me and 10 of them. I arrived in an Emilia Wickstead leather full skirt, with black high heels and red lipstick, and I swear, it helped. The French team were equally as groomed – and so I didn’t feel underdressed.” Isabel Spearman will be answering your workwear style woes every week in The
Daily Telegraph from next Wednesday. To put forward your questions email isabel.spearman@telegraph.co.uk