The focus of attention was on Rishi Sunak’s wife, who looked stunning in a geometric red, white, and blue tiered dress when she stood on the steps of Downing Street to give her farewell speech to the country.
The eye-catching flamenco-esque dress Akshata Murty, 44, chose to wear—a £390 Lina frock from ethical fashion house Omi Na Na and towering white heels—seemed more like a statement of intent than bowing out quietly attire.
As she took her husband’s hand and they walked away from the home they’ve shared for the last 18 months since Sunak’s rise to power in October 2022, Murty might even have had a spring in her step.
The multi-millionaire, said to be worth £500 million thanks to her father’s self-made fortune, has had to dial down her wealth during her time at Number 10, but now that the shackles of her husband’s job have been released, might Murty use her recent global platform to launch a fashion empire?
The wife of the former prime minister, who is also the mother of the couple’s two kids, Krishna and Anoushka, may also decide to wear couture once more after giving it up—at least in public—last year in an effort to win over more Conservative supporters.
What’s clear is that Murty already has the fashion savoir-faire to follow another former ‘British first lady’, Samantha Cameron, into the world of design. Mrs Cameron founded her brand, Cefinn, in 2017, to fill a ‘gap in the market for fashion-forward pieces that work hard for busy women’.
As a student, Murty went to the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.
She even used to own the fashion brand Akshata Designs, which she might relaunch now that everyone is looking at her. She started the company in 2007, when she was still dating Rishi.
The label is intended to celebrate Indian culture by discovering artists in remote villages and working with them and their designs to create her own.
‘I’m about the story behind a particular garment—it’s authenticity, craftsmanship and protecting a rich heritage,’ she told Vogue afterwards. ‘I care about doing something in India, for India, because it’s part of our family’s DNA.’
However, the business venture fell flat and collapsed after just three years.
Recent months have seen her ditch the ‘quiet luxury’ she first became known for when Rishi was Chancellor of the Exchequer; Murty would think nothing back then of doing the school run in a pair of JW Anderson slippers costing nearly £600.
When the cost of living crisis began raging under the Tories’ watch, though, Murty turned to the British High Street for public appearances, donning sensible shirts and jumpers from middle-class mums’ favourite Boden.
Along with the £225 striped midi dress from Jigsaw that she first wore in October 2023 ahead of the Conservative Party Conference, her election wardrobe also included a £34 Boden shirt that she first wore in May 2023.
Despite being the daughter of a billionaire, Akshata has waxed lyrical about how she likes the ‘simple’ ‘everyday things’ in life.
Speaking to the Times last month, she revealed she ‘rarely’ gets recognised and often walks the family Labrador in St. James’ Park.
‘I go to Tesco or the little Sainsbury’s or I go to the M&S in Victoria,’ she said.
Before Rishi assumed power, however, things were much different; the heiress had a reputation for donning high-end costumes that, according to leading fashion experts, would have made Jackie Kennedy blush.
With the title of Britain’s one-time ‘first lady’ forever on her CV and millions in spare change to fire-start a pet project, Murty may yet eclipse her husband’s achievements if she starts up the fashion empire that many suspect she’s keen to do.
The Tories have emptied the till, and now they’ll probably be on a private jet to somewhere or another, engaging in some lucrative role, but then who can blame them? They don’t have to watch what they say or do or even where they go now.
However, they were both disconnected from our daily struggles and the grit and hardship we have to endure. They could never understand it in a million years; it is quite beyond them.
If one goes into politics, they’re signing up for a life of abuse, ridicule, hatred, and sometimes worse, but then they wouldn’t get abused if they did a decent job of running the country. They perform badly and still get paid handsomely for it. These people aren’t clever; their advisors are. They’re like puppets, seeking their advisor’s advice, and it’s rarely good advice.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 