One kind of cover-up never goes out of fashion
Time to update the old adage that if you want a friend in politics, get a dog. As MP Tracy Brabin has discovered, the most crucial piece of kit for any woman in the Commons is a ladyscarf.
By ladyscarf, I mean something pleasing and patterned that can be instantly draped or drooped, flung or folded; to warm the neck, cover the shoulders or (and I speak from bitter experience) hide the horribly inevitable coffee stain on a cream silk blouse. Ta-dah!
Had the former actress been properly prepared, she could have avoided the faux – and, indeed, foe – outrage over her wardrobe malfunction this week and we might have listened to a word she said.
I blame the shadow culture secretary’s staff, whose dereliction of sartorial duty is frankly on a par with that close protection officer who left his Glock and David Cameron’s ID in the aircraft lavatory.
A scarf is an invaluable, access-all-areas passport to effortless sophistication, as demonstrated by Audrey Hepburn in Hermès, glamour girl Heidi Klum, or dresseddown chic as rocked by Georgia May Jagger. The Duchess of Sussex is a huge fan of the
voluminous cover-all. “Put on a sweater and really great sneakers with a big scarf and you’ll look so stylish. For me, they are an everyday essential.”
While Meghan will need to wrap up to counter the Canadian chill, any cold front on this side of the pond tends to be more of the frosty silence variety. So I suggest 58-year-old Brabin channels Joanna Lumley rather than Nanook of the North when she nexts set foot in the House.
Incidentally, the Batley and Spen MP claimed that it was hopping to the Despatch Box that unbalanced her (she has a broken ankle), leading the neckline of her black dress to slip. But as it was a oneshoulder frock – selling fast on Asos, but yours for £35 – that explanation doesn’t really fly.
Unlike an ombré floaty scarf. Or if floaty isn’t her thing, there are any number of other accessories at every price point to choose from. The main consideration is that a string of such scarves can be whipped out of a handbag at a moment’s notice, à la Ali Bongo. Sometimes only a magical transformation will do.