It could be part of the fate of being a boss that even women who don't care much about fashion are often remembered with their look.

If one thinks, for example, of Margaret Thatcher, who with Thatcherism even influenced the restructuring of British society by name, one can also think of her bag worn close to the body, her blue costumes with the defined shoulders typical of the time.

The Queen, Christine Lagarde, Angela Merkel

Jennifer Wiebking

Editor in the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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If you think of the Queen, who - despite all the scandals or precisely because of the family escapades - was and is successful in finding a purpose for the monarchy in the present day, her coat dresses in rainbow colors come to mind, as well as the matching hats, her handbag, her elegant, robust footwear.

If you think of Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the ECB, previously the first female president of the IMF and before that in France the first female finance minister of a G-8 country, there are also the pictures of her patterned silk scarves.

Sometimes she wears them more correctly wrapped, sometimes as if they were thrown on.

When you think of Angela Merkel, the first female Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the mediator in the euro crisis, the philanthropist in the refugee crisis, the scientist in the Corona crisis, you also think of her bright blazers.

Blazer in wheel of fortune colors

At the beginning of its term in office, the republic puzzled what it meant by that.

Something covered for serious days, something radiant for cheerful appointments?

At some point Merkel made it clear that the colors mean nothing at all, these wheel of fortune colors, which are just as randomly their turn.

It should never matter what Merkel wore.

The colorful blazer should work like a dark suit, a women's blazer like a men's suit.

Is the?

Or is the example of Merkel blazers, in addition to the ones mentioned at the beginning, another example of the fact that women - especially those for whose leadership role there is a kind of limelight - still cannot communicate with their appearance? And if so, is the reason that your gender is still a deviation from a norm that has been shaped over centuries? From a man's world in which, even in the age of sneakers and the decline of the tie, there seems to be a prop for everyone in official images, the dark suit?

Her blazers were noticed right from the start, commented on and arranged in collages.

These include, for example, the blazer picture collections on the occasion of 16 New Year's speeches.

Or pictures of Merkel in her jackets as a Pantone color fan.

Or the picture of Malala Yousafzai and Merkel at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York in 2015, both in turquoise blue.

Or the pictures from party conventions, at which several women notice that they are wearing a similar red and the photographers are fast enough to capture the surprise on their faces.

Merkel in red between the men in suits

There are also the pictures of Angela Merkel in the circle of the G-7 bosses, who are all dressed in muted suits, and she, who glows in lime green in between. That was in Heiligendamm in 2007. And there are pictures from the G-7 Cornwall summit this year; Merkel, in red, is no longer the only woman, Ursula von der Leyen, as EU Commission President, is now also there, in cream.