t the 2002 Tory conference, Theresa May caught the nation’s attention with a speech reprimanding her colleagues for their reputation as ‘the nasty party’ - and her leopard-print kitten heels. It would be trite to say that her choice of footwear carried as much significance as her rallying cry to her fellow politicos to be more accepting. But it was an early sign that this was a woman approaching political office on her own terms - and unafraid to court controversy.
She was immediately compared to Imelda Marcos- the wife of former Philipine dictator Ferdinand Marcos said to have owned 3000 pairs of shoes- and labelled a 'shoeaholic'. But if May had felt in any way uncomfortable with the attention that her shoes received, then there’s no doubt that she’d had have consigned the jazzy footwear to the weekends-only section of her wardrobe early on.