Get the latest gossip

‘She knows her history’: why Rachel Reeves wore a pussybow blouse on budget day


Chancellor’s clothing choice shrewdly followed fashion footsteps of Thatcher, Harris and 17th-century menswear

While it is Margaret Thatcher who is perhaps most famous for wearing a pussybow blouse among British politicians, Reeves is more likely to have had in mind the work and wardrobe of Barbara Castle – Labour’s “red queen”, the woman Michael Foot once called “the best socialist minister we’ve ever had”. Popularised by Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s and 1960s, the pussybow blouse has a long history of stepping into the spotlight at high-drama, high-stakes moments. Kate Moss wore one to take the witness stand in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial; Samantha Cameron wore one to Thatcher’s funeral; and Sara Danius – a permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy (the bestower of the Nobel prize in literature) who was asked to resign over her handling of a #MeToo scandal involving a man with links to the academy – sparked a movement with hers.

Get the Android app

Or read this on The Guardian

Read more on:

Photo of Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves