The first unofficial – but ferociously accurate – wardrobe data is in. With less than a week to go, it’s clear that navy blue will win as the sartorial colour of the election. There is to be no hung parliament here; the conservative (small c) never-out-of-fashion hue has been relied upon the most heavily by the seven party leaders. We know this because as our snazzy data graphic shows, navy-blue accounts for 50% of the campaign wardrobes of the main party leaders from the start of the campaign up to and including 27 April. Fashion spoiler alert: it’s the monotony of men’s suits that is to blame.
So how was this graphic – likely to blow the mind of Jeremy Vine and his four new swingometers – put together? Each appearance of a party leader has been categorised by the main colour that they were wearing that day (so usually suits for men and dresses for women) and a secondary colour – that is the accent colour or “pop of colour” in fashion parlance (so usually ties for men and shoes/jackets for women). Although by no means comprehensive, a look at almost 250 pictures, gathered by the Guardian picture desk collection gives an idea of the fashion of the election campaign. Point of note: there are fewer pictures of Natalie Bennett, Leanne Wood and Nigel Farage, and so the blank spaces do not (alas) indicate nudity.
It’s both predictable and revealing. Predictable because there are a lot of men choosing to campaign in dull-in-every-sense-suits (18% of them are grey) with Farage’s obnoxiously pinstriped versions managing to offend without massively changing the sartorial landscape. It is also revealing in that, despite Sturgeon and her Angela Merkel style colour-blocking dominating our collective memories of what politicians wore in the campaign, that simply isn’t reflected in the data. The SNP leader’s multicoloured bespoke Totty Rocks suits and penchant for red only add up to a 5% score for red in the campaign. Happily, fashion apologists can claim that this is hard proof that if you dress boldly you will have a greater impact.
Naturally, the pantone blocks for the female leaders are more dazzling – they have more scope in that respect – but there are disappointments too. Look at the lack of hi-vis here. Have none of the political handlers even heard of Christopher Kane? Miliband, it seems, has not worn one at all, while Cameron has embraced building-site chic the most – four times in fact. Farage is alone in an orange life jacket, and his elephant tie which could generously be read as individual style – is hidden in the data. Another down side of the data is that Clegg and his unaccomplished down-dressing can’t be dissected, merely quantified. He was only wearing a tie six times out of the 20 appearances we have for him.
The real question in this parish is of course whose colour block is the chicest? Sturgeon’s is undoubtedly bold and includes purple, pink, peach and green and could be likened to a Jonathan Saunders collection whilst Farage’s stripe and block is you know, a bit Preen. But the final verdict based on the data colour block – and that alone – clearly shows that, with a touch of the Raf Simons about it, Miliband’s campaign wardrobe totally wins it.
