Cherie concealed, but Samantha held her own with Carla
What can Carrie Symonds learn on the maternity fashion front from her predecessors in No10?
“QUITE a challenge” was how Samantha Cameron described the task of finding a dress to wear when she accompanied her husband to Downing Street after he became Prime Minister. It would be an unenviable style dilemma at the best of times, knowing that your photograph would be on the front page of newspapers everywhere the following day, but add a fivemonth bump into the equation and that “quite” feels like rather an understatement.
Mrs Cameron, who has been refreshingly honest about the pressure she felt to look the part, but was also happy to relish her influence to support British fashion, will surely have some words of advice for Carrie Symonds now that her own pregnancy has been announced.
Ms Symonds’s baby with Boris Johnson will be the third to be born in Downing Street this century, after Leo Blair in May 2000 and Florence Cameron in August 2010. Thankfully, maternity style has come on in leaps and bounds during that time.
Cherie Blair was never exactly known as a style muse, but with maternity dressing she was probably as much a victim of her time as her taste. There weren’t many options other than to flaunt or conceal extremes. She chose the latter, mostly dressing in monochrome maxi dresses, long jackets, loose shirts and trousers. Her boldest look was a head-to-toe red (down to the pointy boots) ensemble for the British Fashion Awards.
By the time Mrs Cameron found herself on the election trail while pregnant with her fourth child, it no longer meant sacrificing personal style. If she was with her husband for a more relaxed engagement, she was seen in the studied yummy mummy uniform of the time: biker jackets, bump-hugging dresses, maternity jeans and trainers.
She elevated her approach for or big political moments. “We went straight to designers and had pieces ieces made bespoke,” says Isabel Spearman, her special adviser.
They commissioned the then up-and-coming designer Emilia Wickstead to create several special pieces for Mrs Cameron, included the Tory blue dress she wore to enter No10 and the black and white dress for the visit of Nicolas Sarkozy, the then French president, and his wife Carla Bruni. That Mrs Cameron more than held her own is perhaps why Wickstead is now a favourite of the Duchess of Cambridge.
As for Ms Symonds, she’s pregnant at a moment when many women are even eschewing the idea of buying clothes specifically made as maternity-wear. “Now I advise women to buy a size up and then they can wear it again after,” says Spearman. “Carrie’s already shown that she loves long a and loose dresses and is conscious about being sustainable in her choices.” Having offered subtle messaging through fashion, like her “everywoman” M&S coat on the night of the election victory, we can be sure she will have so something to say.