I can’t really wear heels any longer but my wardrobe is full of them
– Former Lord Provost Lesley Hinds
From the silky dress worn to meet actor Colin Firth to the T-shirts she wore on anti-apartheid marches in the 1980s, former politician Lesley Hinds has a potted history of her career hanging in her wardrobe.
Having spent more than 35 years in the public eye, the 64-year-old from Edinburgh has collected suits, dresses, trousers and skirts bought for all manner of events and admits she keeps outfits long after they
have gone out of style, purely as they hold sentimental value. One such item is a pair of scarlet red stilettos, worn to meet the Queen in 2003, which she has held on to.
“Red has always been my favourite colour,” explained the mum of three, Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 2003 to 2007. “I bought this gorgeous pair of heels when I was on holiday in Spain, and I decided to wear them to attend the Royal Variety Show.
“They looked fantastic but the next day there was a snidey, quite mean article in the local paper, saying they were inappropriate for the occasion.
“It didn’t bother me at the time but thinking back now I must have kept the shoes as a form of defiance – women are always judged more harshly on their appearance than men, and I was never going to let anyone tell me what I could or couldn’t wear.”
She added with a laugh: “The journalist who wrote the article actually apologised to me some years later, so I think she must have actually liked the shoes, too.”
Another pair of shoes also spark happy memories. Lesley said: “I can’t really wear heels now, especially after having my hip replaced, but my wardrobe is full of them.
“Another pair I can’t bear to part with are black with little red ribbons. I bought them from Hobbs to wear to the ceremony for the honorary degree I was given by the University of Edinburgh. It was such a special day, and every time I look at those shoes, I feel quite proud of how far this girl from a Dundee council estate has come.”