Sunak vs Starmer: who wins in the style stakes?

While the candidates endeavour to make their pledges the focus of their campaigns, a great deal of attention in the battle of Rishi Sunak vs Keir Starmer is on what they’re wearing. Just as it’s noted that Starmer’s faithful sleek black jacket is from Paris house Sandro, at a cost of £500, Sunak lets slip his luxury credentials once more by donning a £750 Tumi backpack – personalised with his initials, no less – to visit Cornwall. As the campaigning gets under way ahead of the upcoming general election, there’s intense focus on the leaders’ image and what it conveys.

Take Sunak in that rain-soaked suit, for example. It’s already become one of the most enduring political images of recent memory, with the Prime Minister looking browbeaten just minutes into his rallying election cry, thanks to the almighty downpour outside Downing Street as the strains of D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better – Labour’s 1997 campaign song – blasted overhead. Surely a waterproof mac or jacket would have seemed more battle-ready?

As we gear up for a general election on July 4, the two candidates are markedly different in their approach to the mercurial craft of image-making. Rishi Sunak has struggled with style missteps, and they’ve been a running joke throughout his time as chancellor and at No.10, from his £490 Prada loafers to visit a Teesside building site, which became a talking point across TV and radio, to his shrunken suit proportions exciting debate on social media. He can’t afford his fashion choices to overshadow his message anymore, particularly in the crucial next six weeks.

Then we have Keir Starmer, who has been decidedly and deliberately low-key in his approach to how he presents himself; his recent appearance in Vogue featured a nondescript navy jacket. It’s a mode of dressing from the same playbook as Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, way more “of the people” and relatable, with little of the corporate suiting that Sunak’s so at home in.

“They both take some care in the way they present themselves,” says Johnny Davis, style director at Esquire. “Starmer’s serious-business dark shirts and Rishi’s Henry Herbert suits seem authentically ‘them’, not the choice of a stylist. I don’t want my politicians to be thinking about style at all – that’s not their job. The bottom line is that so long as our politicians are presentable, that’s style covered. Also, forget the gear; they both happened to be blessed with amazing hair.”

Their campaign videos, which were unveiled on Wednesday night, are keen to paint both as the British everyman; formal suiting, casual open-collar shirts with blazers, outdoors attire to meet their countrymen – but there are subtle nuances: Sunak in a crisp white shirt and tie, alongside a Barbour jacket, which looks utterly incongruous, and note Starmer’s predilection for dark shirting.

So what are the five key messages from their ongoing style campaign?

An opposing stance on suiting

Starmer’s suits are telling by what isn’t said about them, which is a positive thing. They’re nondescript enough to be smart and innocuous, exactly as they should be. They do the job (most often they are navy and single-breasted) without detracting attention.

This is the exact opposite of what Sunak’s suits have done; Sunak favours Henry Herbert, a Bloomsbury tailors, and clearly tasks them with creating nipped-in proportions to match his diminutive 5ft 7in frame. Being small of stature and having a suit of skinnier variety isn’t a bad thing – swamping a smaller frame would be worse – but it has led to a great deal of attention on his cut of suit, rather than the conviction of his statements, and his trouser length has attracted more debate than any Tory PR machine should ever feel comfortable with.

The politics of shirts

Sunak has his shirts made by Travelling Artisan, a bespoke shirtmaker, which crafts them in Italy. The PM tends to stick to a standard business formula of white shirt and classic tie. Nothing wrong with that, obviously.

Starmer takes a different approach on occasion. He’s a former QC, so knows his way around upright, formal attire, but he follows Andy Burnham’s lead in wearing dark shirts. There are politics to dark-coloured shirting – historically associated with craft and toolmakers, going on to have political associations in 1920s Italy. It is a decidedly proletariat approach, deliberately non-corporate, and a sartorial demonstration that he’s a world away from Westminster elitism.

Brand loyalty

Not since Michael Foot’s donkey jacket or Barack Obama’s tan suit has a politicians style choice been so controversial, but Rishi Sunak’s Prada loafers moment was taken as a symbol of how out of touch he was with the average voter. Unsurprisingly for a billionaire, Sunak favours luxury brands – £1,050 Canada Goose puffas, £335 Common Projects trainers – while Starmer has been careful to cultivate more democratic labels, opting for football fan favourite Stone Island as well other classic dad attire like Hugo Boss. He also wore clothes which appeared to be by Charles Tyrwhitt, a brand founded by Brexiteer Nick Wheeler, for a shoot in Vogue.

Both men are fans of North Face (Sunak wore his black jacket for a visit to Port of Nigg in Scotland on Thursday) – the brand is known for its democratic outerwear, loved as much by teens as practical dads, making it a handy politician go-to.

Controversial footwear

On the subject of shoes, there was recent excitement over politicians wearing Adidas trainers. Sunak had to go as far as issuing an apology to the Adidas Sambas community for destroying their cool factor, while Starmer was wearing old ones to visit a football pitch. Sunak’s footwear has again attracted attention – Palm Angel slides with white socks when he was chancellor, and stonking great Timberland boots that went halfway up his calf last year.

The little things

What’s a hair’s breadth between political opponents? Or not, as the case both electorally and follically may be; Starmer has received criticism for overdoing it on the hair gel, and true, he does look rather crunchy to the touch. Rishi’s hair, unlike his male predecessor Boris Johnson, is always slick and groomed.

Other notable little touches? Starmer’s recently upgraded his glasses to a stylish thick-rimmed, tortoiseshell variety, while Sunak has been wise to avoid a Macron-style controversy and hasn’t been spotted wearing an eye-wateringly expensive watch – but he does like pricey tech gadgets; see his fondness for a £180 smart mug, and his daily Peloton sessions.

Let election style watch begin.