VB's dress on Mrs Burnham - horrible

[TheBlueKoala]

I'm not a fashion expert and I really don't care much for it but this was the most horrible dress I have ever seen. Even on a coathangar bodytype like VB herself it wouldn't look good but on an average body it's just hideous. That's 850 £ unwisely spent. She could and should have gotten a dress from M&S for 50£ and actually looked good.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/middle-class-mrs-burnham-dress/

I don't think she really has hurt feelings.

She's trying to make a point that it is normal to comment negatively if you don't like something.

I suspect her choices were chosen to elicit those sorts of comments - though I wasn't doing a piss-take in saying something about the Coppelia milkmaid dress appealed to me! I had a dress with embroidered sprigs when I was little and it has a certain nostalgia.

She said she had hurt feelings.

With respect, telling everyone to 'just stop doing it' feels a bit like the Emperor’s courtiers telling the crowd to cover their eyes. In Hans Christian Andersen's story, the courtiers created an atmosphere of fear and shaming.

I don't agree with shaming women's bodies and haven't done this, but criticising her choice of dress is fair game and people in power need to be scrutinised. The VB dress represents a massive economic contradiction from a self-proclaimed 'everyman' political family that in itself is an interesting part of this story.

I've never earned more than the average wage and am well under the 2025 average of £39,039. Personally I don't get the fuss about the cost of the dress and the "political message" it gives out. All Labour leaders have had far more wealth than most of us. The Burnham's probably earned over £250k pa combined when he was mayor. Are they meant to wear Primark and shop at Aldi to make "the people" feel better? I think she would have got slated whether she wore a £100 dress or the £850 one. Angela Rayner was slated for wearing a £550 Me & Em suit as it "wasn't in keeping with her working class background" - it's just ridiculous.

Posters have relentlesdly criticised her body as well as her dress. The body of a woman who has had a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. Just leave her alone fgs!

^This

Its also nearly always the women, independent of party association, who are sniped at whether they wear cheap or expensive. Teresa May’s designer trousers used to get the same snarking, Cherie Blair was subject to endless bitching about her clothes and body (another older woman with children). In the case of wivess/family of politicians its particularly ridiculous.

The woman has her own job and income, there is no reason why she should pretend she doesn’t.

She's not the one in power though.

Yes, but the point couldn't be made so neatly if she didn't say that.

I'm so sick of women still being judged on what they wear nowadays above anything else. It's shallow and depressing. It was a perfectly befitting dress for the occasion.

I hate having my photograph taken. It would be the stuff of nightmares for me to have to be on TV, photographed from every angle, printed in the press etc.
Fortunately this is unlikely to happen! But it does make me sympathetic to anyone facing this.

If we can’t talk about her dress or her sex life, can we talk about her job?
I thought she was head of marketing; but I don’t think she has done a very good job of marketing herself. Surely a lot of marketing is about image and perception and I think she has failed on both accounts. She could have worn something that suited her figure better and cost less.

It's not ridiculous from a PR point of view.

Look, you cannot use working class sloganism throughout your politics and to gain popularity and then send a totally discordant message with your clothes branding in public facing roles.

As has been pointed out better than me, fashion designers inhabit the realm of social politics too. Whom you choose to wear, how eco conscious their clothing is and how much it costs absolutely isn't a neutral choice.

When Meghan Markle was touring the country with Harry whilst engaged, they still retained decent PR at that time, and either she herself or someone advising her would select local designers in the area they were visiting for her to wear, I particularly remember her wearing Jeans from a small eco-conscious not well known, home grown Welsh brand. It was skillful PR. I think she also wore Marks and Sparks a couple of times.

So yes, criticism of which designers the wife of the PM favours, when said PM has been deftly signaling his WC affiliations and sympathies matters.

Purely from that pov, (not her body) it was a big faux pas and a missed opportunity.

Why in gods name would you want to talk about hex sex life.

and talking about her dress is fine, ripping her apart, talking about her body, her underwear is not.

I don’t get it either, burnham is worth an estimate 2.5 million. What should his wife do, dress in primark to kid on they aren’t loaded?

starmer is worth about 5m. Corbyn about 3.

i don’t get people going on about the cost of the dress. They are all multi millionaires.

its been a long time since labour wasn’t led by someone hoarding wealth and pretending to be one of the people.

I don’t want to talk about her sex life but another poster did and was told no.
So what do you think about her marketing skills?

I reluctantly agree with you. Perhaps nothing can quite prepare you for that level of publicity and scrutiny.
Less can be more sometimes.

It's absolutely ridiculous. Does anyone really think they are, or should be, shopping at Primark?

If I were her I'd have picked this, but that's my taste. I wouldn't have picked such a pale dress as I'd probably spill something on it, but maybe she's less clumsy than me.

https://caseycasey.eu/products/stephanie-dress-paper-cot-lippy-26fr594?variant=52274779160903

I like that in raspberry. Though it's even more expensive! But I would wear it.

I would be really interested to see some more examples of what she "should" have worn. On the evidence of PP comments, a UK designer but not VB and there were criticisms that the VB dress (if she actually bought it) cost too much. So, what if she had a budget of, say, £500 for a UK designer? What would the stylists on here - amateur or professional - have put her in?

I love that. Waiting for the usual incoming “It’s a sack”.

All the suggestions so far have been dire in one way or another. The latest one looks like something an Amish escort would wear!

Are you quite ok? I’ve never met the woman so am in no position to judge her marketing skills, all I know is she’s very successful and has seniority it what she does, so I’d assume she’s very capable.

why on earth would anyone wish to discuss her marketing skills or her sex life.

what is wrong with people.

Amish escort work for you?

And right on cue! It literally took two minutes.

The truth will out.