You can lead in a different way. No need to leave mustaches or get into pants. What Michelle Bachelet said a few years ago takes on a special meaning after seeing how several Madrid politicians shone on the red carpet of the Platinum Awards. Each one with its own style and a single headline: political power.
With a spectacular neckline dress with grid, designed for her by Victoria Colección Studio, Isabel Díaz Ayuso became one of the best dressed of the night. He coincided in the event with Begoña Villacís and Andrea Levy. The first wore a catwalk dress created by Hannibal Laguna, electric fuchsia pink, V-neckline and a frilly frown on one side. With her stilettos of the same color she walked with diva ease. Levy also elegantly defended her sequined dress with a large 3D flower on the chest.
Without needing to utter a word, they launched a powerful message, a sign of independence in what they do that definitively distances them from any typically masculine code. At the same time, and almost unanimously, the citizens applauded this way of dressing the position they hold.
The importance of fashion
The occasion encourages a detailed analysis of their image and their use of clothing and color as part of their identity and the political image they project. Not only of them, also of the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, whose profile has evolved to find the garments that best suit her and creating a very defined style of her own. It could even be said that the 'Diaz effect' has been felt in other leaders, such as Irene Montero.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the Platino.Gtres Awards gala
Inma Espizua, image and communication consultant and author of the book 'The image of your success is you', believes that all this is especially important in this society of immediacy and lack of attention: "It is important for any policy to build your personal brand faithful to your identity and consistent with your message and the public to which it is addressed. As part of that brand, you must find your own, solid and consistent style."
Do not imitate men
The idea of dressing as a man to command is being left behind, as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did when she took power a few months ago. He exchanged his steamy dresses and light silk field shirts for generally dark tailor suits. In any case, Espizua believes that what really matters is that "politics is comfortable and identified with their attire and that it adapts to their program, time and place."
In his opinion, each of the Spanish leaders mentioned has done it in his own way. Yolanda Díaz has softened her image since 2000, when she wore monochrome garments and scarves around her neck. "He lightened his hair color, lost weight and began to use more fitted styles," says the advisor. The second vice president's handling of color stands out. "The white in many of his appearances conveys an image of transparency and trust. In addition, it is the color of women's suffrage. The spectrum of colors for your clothes, much more vivid and warm, allows you to emit a closer image and, in your opinion, they feel much better. Warm red is also often chosen and has been chosen for its formation."
Yolanda Díaz and Isabel Díaz Ayuso
Díaz has been learning, Espizua observes, to adapt his image to the time and place. The expert dwells on those more fitted patterns, "but also very clean and without stealing prominence from her person", and applauds her way of highlighting her femininity and personality. "With patterns that stylize it, tight to the waist, necklines in peak and lengths below the knee, more elegant." He is especially struck by how he balances his features so marked "not only with hair and his looks, but with a friendly and close communication, in addition to his permanent smile". The result, he says, is an accessible and friendly image, as well as communication that gives him attractiveness and security.
Yolanda Díaz, a politician who transmits messages through her clothes. Gtres
Of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Espizua also highlights her undeniable evolution. "His figure looks more stylized and therefore his outfits, based on tailor suits and dresses with simple lines and plain colors, are more fitted. In addition to being beautiful, it takes care of its aesthetics and offers a very careful image". She defines her style as a working girl, "very consistent with her personality and with the acronyms she represents, but current and adapted to the time and place". It is also distinguished by its good sense with color. "The target to appear in moments of crisis in which he wanted to convey sincerity; green when I wanted to reflect hope; red when he wanted to value the community he represents; or blue at his party events."
Those shirts with which at key moments he sends clear and forceful messages do not go unnoticed, such as one of the last ones in which you can clearly read "the boss". "As for her hairstyle," she adds, "she has managed to maintain her style without giving up her curls but with a slightly more sophisticated touch. This gives it a more accessible and close image, according to a natural and authentic way of communicating. In addition, he transmits passion for what he does, something unusual in the political class. His big mistake is that he reads the speeches too much and here he loses naturalness, confidence and connection with the public."
Andrea Levy and Begoña Villacís
Andrea Levy has also been polishing her style over the years to find a very personal one with creative touches. He achieves this, according to Espizua, thanks to the use of color, prints, a mixture of risky and romantic fabrics and patterns, volumes or floral prints, for example, or trendy garments that denote his taste for fashion.
Andrea Levy, the most risky with her outfits. Gtres
Very different is the image of Villacís. "His style," says the consultant, "is often very elegant thanks to jacket suits, tailor-cut pants, dresses fitted below the knee and combinations that adapt to his silhouette like a glove." It is a style that is reinforced thanks to its stature and its stylized figure. "It also has a seductive touch thanks to the use of necklines. However, he does not hesitate to adapt his image to the time and place, opting for a much more casual style when the situation requires it. She is a woman who, in addition to being very attractive, is accessible and kind thanks to her smile and communication that is credible and natural."
Colors and prints
In summary, Diana Rubio, an expert in communication and etiquette, synthesizes that "where before a light blue dress, a polka dot blouse or a pink jacket meant sweetness and delicacy, now it is diversity, politics in feminine and a sample of the irruption of women in politics, "she says. Therefore, their colors go beyond the masculine blues and blacks. "The white suffragist of Díaz is in tune with his way of doing politics and temperance as one of his characteristics. Ayuso, on the other hand, makes the blue emerge now that he begins his campaign and resorts to the same cut of clothes as a warning that he is going to the safe, the stable and the certain, as he tries to make his policy also ".
Begoña Villacís, by Hannibal Laguna at the Platino Awards.Getty
And if Andrea Levy bets on creativity and hipster fashion, "it is because she marries perfectly with her image of novel politics, characteristic of Madrid. In that line, she dares with unusual looks that also make her unique and sophisticated."
Rubio concludes that we have finally understood that leadership has no gender and is something that is gaining ground and visibility through the dress of policies. "A careful image – ditch – does not mean weakness, but that it enhances values different from those accustomed in politics, a term, by the way, feminine."
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