Liz Jones What WILL Sam Cam ltd. have in store?

As the former First Lady of Fashion launches her own label, selects the signature styles we can expect

WHAT’S a style icon to do when she’s no longer in the public gaze? Launch her own clothing line, of course. And luckily for Samantha Cameron – who last week registered a luxury brand called Samantha Cameron Studio Limited – designing dresses rather than wearing them isn’t too much of a leap: she was the creative director of luxury brand Smythson and her younger sister, Emily Sheffield, also happens to be deputy editor of Vogue.

Over the past six years, Sam Cam – who topped Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed Women list last year – was frequently shoehorned into sticky-out skirts by Christopher Kane and gowns covered in roses by Erdem, but we knew her heart wasn’t in it. Becoming a figure head for the British fashion industry was in her job description, not her DNA. You felt the moment she got home, she breathed a sigh of relief and removed all the trappings, confident enough in her background to wear a onesie.

Yet she has emerged from her immersion in fashion a changed woman. Her job as First Lady of Fashion was to patronise British labels, but she grew to enjoy dressing up. She has appeared colourful and out there, expensive but never boring.

So the fact she is about to translate what she has learned from attending numerous Royal weddings, State occasions, resignation speeches and funerals into something we can all buy into is terrific news. She learned the hard way. After the too-short creased Burberry dress and bare head she sported to William and Kate’s wedding, she found out respect is key: a formal occasion is about them, not you. She also learned to abandon baubles at the decolletage by choosing high necks that frame her face, and that platforms are not welcome anywhere, especially if you’re negotiating the stone steps to St Paul’s.

And remember: too much fabric means that you have to show some flesh somewhere to avoid looking like a sofa, which is why she loves to emphasise those arms. She has stuck valiantly to trousers but makes sure they end at the ankle: this lengthens the leg, shows off the shoe and is effortlessly sexy to boot.

She has cleverly learned to mix anonymous cheap pieces with designer, but also knows that head-to-toe cheap and cheerful is a mistake. Above all, she has got to know her own body shape, and dresses accordingly: she has a tiny waist and shows it off whenever she can.

My guess is her new collection will be mid-price – meaning Whistles price points of say £325 for a wool pea coat and £250 for a cocktail dress – and aimed at professional mums: the sort who feel Boden is a slippery slope to never having sex again, but who are too busy to put the time into the gym to fit into anything bodycon.

There will be cropped trousers, retro-print tea dresses, colour and Breton tops. Her label will be for women who aren’t confident enough to buy Marni or Erdem, want money left over to leave to their helicoptered children, but want a little more than Per Una at M&S. I can’t wait.