Politics aside, no one doubts Yingluck's style
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During the past year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has charmed people with her beautiful smile in Thailand and abroad. Admittedly, she is photogenic.
When Yingluck was elected, she had to deal with a lot of talk – both in terms of politics and fashion – surrounding the fact that she is the first Thai female prime minister.
In terms of fashion, as an attractive woman, and as people would expect of a wealthy businesswoman, she treads a difficult line between wanting to be a hi-so fashion plate and a prime minister worthy of the country’s trust.
During these times, her style has been hit and miss, and sometimes her personal advisers fail to save her from making mistakes, as with the posh Burberry boots she wore during the floods.
However, Yingluck has changed in certain ways. She wears more traditional Thai cloth and fabrics, and has had specialists do her makeup and hair before stepping out of the house every day to overcome critics of her hairdo while she campaigned for votes. Although it is said that sometime she does the hair herself and likes to choose her own outfits.
She is still very much a fancier of high-end brands.
Her typical look involves as the key fashion piece a jacket blazer matched with a pencil knee-length skirt. The blazer is a good choice to cover the hip while looking smart.
Yingluck is very keen on vibrant colours. She has learned to distinguish herself from dull black-suit crowd with vivid colourful blazers and skirts; even if she has to wear a black jacket, she seems to have plenty of colourful plain and printed blouses and dresses to wear on the inside of the typical black suit.
As a female leader, Yingluck’s style has been compared to other world fashion-spotting superiors like Michelle Obama or Carla Bruni. It was reported that Yingluck’s blazers and matching pant and knee-length skirt suits are more akin to Bruni’s style.
But as the country’s leader – aside from the family-owned manufacturer Shinawatra Thai Silk – the prime minister is supposed to promote Thai fabric. Hence, these days she is often seen in exquisite, flattering Thai silk.
During recent diplomatic tours, Yingluck looked confident. Her style – matching blazer and knee-length skirt – seemed to suit her well. On one occasion, though, she wore orange Mudmee silk decorated with white lace sleeves, which according to an experienced fashion guru was completely a style miss.
“Poor mix-and-match,” he said.
Ultimately, despite Yingluck’s style, her political road is not a rosy one. Residents of any country in the world would certainly be more appreciative if their leader does the job well, than face-lifted; this request applies to the first woman prime minister of Thailand as well.
Rumour has it, however, that Yingluck has not repeated her outfits so far!
