POWER DRESSING

Flattering, functional and forever - Me+Em has won over Britain's women, from politicians to princesses. Laura Craik looks at how the homegrown label became a game-changer

- Laura Craik

When Lady Victoria Starmer – Vic, to her husband and friends – stepped into the limelight on election day, it was a surprise to nobody that she did so wearing red. Of more surprise was the label that she chose for this auspicious occasion.

Pictured on the doorstep of No 10, Starmer looked just-so in a £275 dress from the independent British label, Me+Em. Calflength, form-fitting and with split sleeves that indicated confidence not merely in her husband’s leadership but in her upper arms, Starmer’s dress was a choice far savvier than her self-effacing manner might have led onlookers to expect.

It was also something of a landslide victory for Me+Em, the independent British label that has recently been gaining more ground in working women’s wardrobes than even the most optimistic polls could have predicted. For Lady Starmer is but the latest in a slew of high-profile fans – Nicole Kidman, Gillian Anderson, Claudia Winkleman, Trinny Woodall and the Princess of Wales among them – to have fallen for the chic mid-market brand.

And let’s not forget Angela Rayner, who wore a green Me+Em trousersuit on the day she was appointed deputy prime minister, as well as an orange dress at Keir Starmer’s inaugural cabinet meeting.

Anyone wondering whether the female members of the Labour Party are involved in some clandestine influencer deal with the brand need not fret. In fact, Me+Em has wormed its way into working women’s affections on merit alone, by delivering the sort of wardrobe solutions that they need, but don’t have time to shop for.

Based around items that deliver “the three Fs” – flattering, functional and forever – its blazers, trousers, dresses and shirts are designed to form that cliched but often elusive thing: a “capsule wardrobe” of basics that work as well in the boardroom as they do on weekends.