IABU Mrs Leadsom's mini dress

[longwayoff]

Blimey Andrea. Interesting choice.

*evening

It isn’t about appropriateness. It’s about what other people consider appropriate. I’m almost 61 and am not about to judge a woman going to work wearing clothes. She is clean and tidy. If she’s capable of doing the job mind your own you judgemental old biddies!

Men wear suits that are tailored, well cut and understated. Colour can be added by a tie - the equivalent for a woman would be a scarf or blouse, not a flash of thigh

Why is the default setting a man's suit? Women don't have to dress thinking "What would a man wear? What's my equivalent?"

Why is this an issue

I can remember the fuss of Theresa May’s kitten heels 🙄

Ffs it’s so not important why are you playing into this misogynistic rubbish

Mumsnet is such a funny place.

A poster starts a thread about what may or may not be appropriate to wear to a wedding and you'll get page after page of posters telling her that the dress isn't appropriate because it's too frilly, too white, too black and so on.

The OP posts of photo of an MP wearing a car crash of an outfit for a day at work and most posters are saying it's great and totally appropriate for a meeting at number 10.

It isn't appropriate for a meeting at number 10, or anywhere else for that matter. Wear it anywhere you want but it's not appropriate for work.

The fact is that as a society we have certain ways and standards of dress for certain occasions: wedding, funerals and things like important work meetings and interviews.

I find it very hard to believe that anyone with any judgement would put that outfit on, look at themselves in the mirror and think, 'yes, I'm off to an important meeting, I definitely look like someone who should be taken seriously in this get up'.

I'm more concerned that Mrs Leadsom is prepared to be in a government led by someone who effectively demoted her and has a disgraceful attitude towards women.

She instantly lost any potential credibility in my mind the instant she said she was in favour of foxhunting. So wearing fancy dress/fancy coat/fancy boots to work means precious little when she'd be equally delighted to dress up in hunting attire to enjoy the spectacle of a fox being torn to pieces.

Maybe she is hoping that Boris will grope her inner thigh.

And if he did, I assume we would all agree she was asking for it in that outfit? No?

Frankly, the more mature, educated women in serious, high-profile roles flash their thighs to bury this archaic bullshit defence, the better.

If she was wearing that coat with trousers, this thread wouldn't even have been started.

Men/male MPs on the whole don’t get commented on their clothes because they basically dress the same. I’m sure that if they started going into work dressed in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts we’d all have plenty to say.

Absolutely. Michael Foot got a hell of a lot of flak when he wore a donkey jacket at the cenotaph on remembrance day when he was leader of the Labour Party.

Coat is lovely - not on me, but she carries it off well.

Bollocks to say this is misogynistic. It's not appropriate for any workplace I can think of, let alone public office.

There would be just as much uproar if a male MP turned up to a cabinet meeting in tracksuit bottoms and a football shirt, or a pair of ripped skinny jeans.

Although I disagree with her politics, I think she looks pretty good there. She probably wasn't on her way to work anyway when the photo was taken.

There would be just as much uproar if a male MP turned up to a cabinet meeting in tracksuit bottoms and a football shirt, or a pair of ripped skinny jeans

Would the descriptive terms be:-

"Cheap"
"Tarty"
"looks like a prostitute"
"From the shoulders downwards he is quite attractive, and he can wear what he likes. From the neck upwards it all goes horribly wrong"

Of course the way women in the public eye are dealt with is rooted in misogyny.

Was she going for the hooker look?

Men/male MPs on the whole don’t get commented on their clothes because they basically dress the same. I’m sure that if they started going into work dressed in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts we’d all have plenty to say.

Men's clothes are in general utterly, utterly dull, and men's business wear has become a uniform, especially since ties and non-dark suits are no longer worn.

Men's appearance is about as conversational as Father Stone.

And Andrea Leadsom looks great. Pity about her politics.

I think she looks great!

@AProblemHasOccured. "You never see men getting told they dress inappropriately."

Err... Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn off the top of my head. I'm sure there's plenty more.

Senior male politicians get told off for not wearing The Uniform©.

I have to admit I haven't RTFT but that just means I'm giving my own honest opinion here, not bandwagon jumping:

Normally I do not agree with criticising politicians based on what they wear. I'll occasionally make a favourable comment (I quite like some of Theresa May's clothes and I don't see why she shouldn't be complimented on them, as much as I hated her policies) but I think it is unkind to bitch about the clothes of politicians of either sex. It's not what they're there for.

But this is very much an outfit that someone would only wear to make a statement. It's a "look at me" outfit. It's not something anyone would put on without thinking about the reaction it will get. It's the equivalent of a male politician turning up in shorts and a brightly coloured bow tie.

IF (and it's a big if) this outfit was worn on a work occasion, I can think of two possible statements she could have been making, and neither of them makes me admire her very much:

"Look at me, I'm really interesting and fashionable and likeable, therefore you should listen to what I have to say"

"Look at me, and forget all about the mess my friends and I are making of everyone's future - my clothes are much more memorable!"

If it was a private moment then although the outfit is not my cup of tea I think we ought to butt out.

On the whole we women make more of a big deal out of our clothes, we just like to look nice, most men don’t care. My dhs work clothes consists of bitumen splashed jeans and t shirts.