The British Prime Minister Wears Prada
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LONDON — Rishi Sunak is Britain’s new prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, the third in seven weeks.
He’s also the first prime minister to confidently love dressing up in Prada, British tailoring, Palm Angels and Common Projects.
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The new prime minister made headlines on July 21 after the Daily Mail reported that Sunak, Britain’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, was wearing a two-piece suit by Henry Herbert that cost 3,500 pounds with Prada shoes costing 490 pounds.
Sunak, an Oxford graduate and Fulbright scholar with an MBA from Stanford and a former banker with Goldman Sachs, has frequently been criticized for his education and wealth.
According to The Sunday Times Rich List, he and his wife Akshata Murthy are worth 730 million pounds. Murthy’s family are self-made millionaires and she holds shares in her father’s technology firm Infosys; Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria and Jamie’s Italian; Wendy’s outlets in India; the nanny agency Koru Kids, and the gym operator Digme Fitness.
The British government hasn’t had a sleek dresser leading it since Theresa May, who resigned in 2019 with Johnson taking over. One of Johnson’s greatest assets in office was his image. It didn’t fit the mold of past prime ministers, which has traditionally been arid and clean-cut in navy blue suits and striped ties — the more rumpled the suit, the better.
Truss followed in those footsteps with her stiff silhouettes, block colors and short, neat, blond hairstyles. She favors British high street labels and outfits that are worlds away from the minimally sleek and corporate uniforms of her colleagues. Her go-to brand is Karen Millen, which is now owned by British fast-fashion retailer Boohoo Group.
For Sunak to eschew Savile Row and opt for a young, low-key tailor such as Henry Herbert is telling. The company, which was founded in 2009, is a newbie compared with the Savile Row giants, some of which are more than 200 years old.
In October 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, Charlie Baker-Collingwood, the founder and owner of the tailoring company, died, and Alexander Dickinson, 30, took on the small business that he’d joined in 2014.
Although lockdown was difficult, he’s back making bespoke clothing, and not just suits, for professional clients — lawyers, bankers, tech workers and politicians.
The tailor, which once used to sit alongside the corps d’elite on Savile Row, has relocated to a more shy space opposite a Korean restaurant and a humble British pub not far from The British Museum.
“You can come off the beaten track and pay 2,500 pounds for a more personal service with the same fabrics made by the same people where you have a lot more control on your own garments. On Savile Row you’re probably buying into the house style,” Dickinson told WWD over the summer.
“They [Savile Row businesses] are very much clinging on to tradition, which definitely works for the American market but the British gentleman is getting more savvy and realizing that they don’t actually have to pay 5,000 pounds [for a suit],” he added.
Although Dickinson declined to comment on Sunak, it’s possible that the politician’s four-figure suit wasn’t new.
Sunak wouldn’t be the first British leader to wear a bespoke suit, either.
Winston Churchill started visiting Savile Row from the age of 19, endorsing the likes of Henry Poole & Co. and Turnbull & Asser in wartime and peacetime; John Major and Gordon Brown turned to Gieves & Hawkes.
Tony Blair arrived in Downing Street after winning the election in May 1997. Blair, the man of “New Labour,” gambled on a new sartorial choice when in office by often wearing Paul Smith. Brown’s successor, David Cameron, also favored a hip British brand, often wearing suits by Richard James.
Sunak, with his squeaky-clean, teetotal lifestyle, has never tried to hide his habits, with regular 6 a.m. Peloton workouts and a breakfast of Greek yogurt and blueberries. He steered the country through the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing financial relief to workers hit by the downturn.
As prime minister, he now faces the task of stabilizing the U.K. politically and economically, which has been reeling from the disastrous economic policies of Truss that caused the pound to plummet in value against the dollar, gilts to fall, and the stock market to drop. He also will have to try to determine how to tame an inflation rate that is among one of the highest in Europe.
Johnson, who was in the running for the position for a second time, withdrew from the contest on Monday, along with Sunak’s opponent Penny Mordaunt, paving the way for Sunak to become the U.K.’s first British Asian prime minister.
Truss congratulated Sunak on Twitter and pledged her full support to him.
If Sunak lasts as prime minister until May 2023, he can show off his British tailored suits at the 49th G7 Summit in Japan, along with other sharply dressed men such as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
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