Giorgia Meloni and the politics of power dressing

For politicians, what they wear can be both a strategic communications tool and a weapon

- Vanessa Friedman

The first female prime minister of Italy wears Armani.

It began in late October, when Ms Giorgia Meloni, founder of the hard-right Brothers of Italy party and leader of the conservative coalition that won the national election, wore three dark Armani pantsuits on the three days of formal transition of power from Mr Mario Draghi's government to her own.

She wore an Armani with a black shirt for her first official photograph with her ministers, an Armani with a white shirt for her handover meeting with Mr Draghi and a navy blue Armani in between. And so it continued.

Ms Meloni wore an Armani suit during a news conference after the first meeting of her Cabinet, when she announced, among other things, new crackdowns on illegal late-night raves. And she appeared in Armani again for her first meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels in November.

She has worn Armani so often in such a short time that, along with her ironed-straight blond bob, the look is starting to seem like a uniform of the office. One that is both more significant and less obvious than it may at first appear.

More significant because Ms Meloni is redefining the image of Italy for the world, and in that context, every choice matters.

That includes the choice to align herself visually with the comfortingly familiar wardrobe of captains of industry and with a brand that is a pillar of the power-dressing establishment - a decision that makes her seem less like a radical change than her often-vitriolic populism, policies and gender may otherwise suggest.