How Lady Victoria got the Holly effect for 50-somethings - after the clothes she wears for her first week in Downing Street sell out By Shane Watson Published: 02:04, 12 July 2024 | Updated: 03:17, 12 July 2024 e-mail View comments A week is a long time in politics and an even longer time (you'd imagine) if you're the wife of the new Prime Minister, who, as of last Friday, has had to take her place on the world stage looking appropriately dressed for every thing from a day at the races to formal dinners in Washington DC . Yet, even exiting the plane on Tuesday, ahead of the Nato summit, Victoria, Lady Starmer (or Lady Vic, as she's known in political circles), looked born to this job: glowing and upbeat in a £450 cream, lace-knit dress from British label Needle & Thread, which might as well have had 'breath of fresh air' stamped all over it. A wife who dresses well is not a requirement of the job of PM, nor should it be, but we all know a natural clothes horse when we see one — someone who understands how to make fashion work for her character and lifestyle and who is confident enough to have some fun with it.
That Victoria happens to have grace and a chin-up, eyes-sparkling naturalness that you couldn't have dreamed up in a Labour focus group, is definitely something for the new government to smile about. Just eight days ago, Victoria was a private, working mother-of-two whom we had barely seen in public, so it's all the more impressive that she has hit the ground running.
