Not a white flag but a cream blazer was what Victoria Starmer chose to wear to accompany her husband, the prime minister, to vote on Thursday morning. She follows in a long line of women who have mobilised the power blazer at high-stakes moments.<\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s, which looks much like a \u00a31,690 ivory Alexander McQueen crepe design, comes hot on the lapels of another. In episode one of the new series of Amandaland<\/a>, Amanda wears a beige double-breasted iteration in a high-stakes fictional moment: to give a toe-curling talk about her (not shallow) lifestyle brand Senuous as part of careers week at her kid\u2019s school. Earlier in the week, the Princess of Wales launched the Foundations for Life report wearing a creamy beige high-waisted Roland Mouret suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n High-stakes fictional moment: Lucy Punch as Amanda in Amandaland. Photograph: BBC\/Merman<\/p>\n The cream blazer has, according to the stylist and DC-based fashion consultant Lauren Rothman, who styles politicians and business people, \u201ca professional, creative aesthetic to it that says: \u2018I\u2019m in my own lane of power dressing, and that requires standing out while still signalling competence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Rothman refers to the blazer in general as \u201cthe third piece\u201d: \u201cthe layer that turns clothing into presence\u201d. Blazers, she says, \u201ccreate visual structure, and structure is psychologically associated with authority, preparedness, competence\u201d. Physically, she says, blazers change \u201chow they carry themselves by the sharpening of framing the body in a powerful way\u201d.<\/p>\n The Princess Of Wales arrives for the Foundations for Life report launch earlier this week in London wearing a Roland Mouret suit. Photograph: Chris Jackson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n A blazer in a cream, or close-to-cream, colour has an added layer. \u201cIt\u2019s a high-visibility neutral,\u201d she says. \u201cPsychologically that behaves very differently than black \u2026 It attracts attention. Where dark colours recede, white and cream advance. And so it really changes the power dynamic of how a woman occupies a room or a space.\u201d<\/p>\n The oversized, off-white Marc Jacobs blazer Harry Styles<\/a> wears in his new video for Dance No More is certainly a case in point, particularly in tandem with his bright red short-shorts.<\/p>\n In the case of Starmer, next to the dark tailoring of her husband, it denotes \u201cthe modern evolution of power dressing\u201d. The same could be said for Melania Trump, appearing next to her husband to welcome the British king and queen to the White House last week wearing an off-white Ralph Lauren blazer and matching skirt. Perhaps there\u2019s something in the contrast that Hillary Clinton was hoping to weaponise in 2016 when she wore a Ralph Lauren cream wool crepe blaze<\/a>r to take on Donald Trump in the third presidential debate during which sexual assault allegations against him were raised.<\/p>\n