When Clothes Make The Powerful Woman
穿著形塑位高權重的女性
By Vanessa Friedman

The big winner of the recent election in Britain was unquestionably David Cameron, whose upset majority took pollsters by surprise. But running a close second was Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party.
英國最近大選的大贏家無疑是大衛．卡麥隆，他（的政黨）爆冷門取得過半席次，令民調機構跌破眼鏡。緊跟在後的第二大贏家則是蘇格蘭首席大臣兼蘇格蘭民族黨黨魁妮可拉．史德金。

By taking 56 seats in Scotland, she transformed her party, which led the campaign for Scottish independence in September 2014, into the third-largest bloc in the House of Commons and herself into a force to be reckoned with.
蘇格蘭民族黨是2014年9月領導蘇格蘭獨立運動的政黨；史德金率該黨在蘇格蘭攻下56席，轉化成下議院的第三大黨團，並讓自己成為不可忽視的力量。

“Transformed” being an operative word.
「轉化」是關鍵字眼。

Since last November, when Ms. Sturgeon became the party leader, she has not only stepped out of the shadow of her mentor, Alex Salmond, she has also moved on from her former subdued trouser suits, donning a de facto mantle of power: not a red ermine-rimmed cloak but a neat red pencil-skirt dress. As well as an Angela Merkel-style blond bob.
史德金去年11月成為蘇格蘭民族黨領導人後，不僅走出啟蒙師艾列克斯．沙蒙德的陰影，還走出之前不起眼的褲裝，換上代表權勢的斗篷。她不是真換上紅色貂皮鑲邊斗篷，而是穿上一襲紅色的鉛筆裙裝。還有德國總理安吉拉．梅克爾式的金髮鮑伯髮型。

In its echoes of what has become the accepted uniform of female leaders everywhere, her image evolution signaled her ambitions and revealed the way women are using clothing to manage their transition to power.
有樣學樣，換穿全球都認可的女性領袖服裝之際，她的形象改變不僅說明她的野心，還說明女性正藉由服裝來管理邁向權力之路。

“It’s a soft power look,” said Holly Mitchell, a founder and designer, along with Lynsey Blackburn, of the Edinburgh boutique Totty Rocks, who met Ms. Sturgeon when the first minister bought one of their dresses and a matching jacket around the time of her swearing in. Ms. Sturgeon has since been pictured in, among others, their Betty dress (available on their website for 179 pounds, or about $277), their Blitz dress (also 179 pounds) and their Bow dress (159 pounds).
愛丁堡精品店「托蒂．洛克斯」創辦人兼設計師荷莉．米契爾說：「它是一種軟權力的外表。」約莫在史德金宣誓就任前，她和另一設計師琳西．布雷克柏恩一起接待了史德金，這位首席大臣向他們購買了一件洋裝和搭配的外套。其後，史德金被拍攝到穿了該店的貝蒂洋裝（網站售價179英鎊，約合277美元）、貝立茲洋裝（同樣179英鎊），以及蝴蝶結連身洋裝（159英鎊）。

All share the same basic characteristics: bright colors, straight knee-length skirts, three-quarter sleeves and a lack of controversy.
它們都有共同基本特色：色彩亮麗、直筒及膝裙、七分袖，毫無爭議。

The apparel blueprint was established by Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2000 when, after a much-chronicled, and much-maligned, period of wardrobe experimentation as the first lady, she settled into a familiar trouser-suit groove as a senator.
首先建立這種服裝形象的是希拉蕊．柯林頓，她以第一夫人身分，度過記載很多且飽受非議的穿衣實驗期後，於2000年選定以一成不變、熟悉的褲裝為她的參議員服。

But it really achieved prominence with Ms. Merkel’s rise in 2005, when the German chancellor adopted what has become her signature: a pair of straight-cut trousers and contrast three-button jacket with diagonal pockets.
但讓服裝形象廣受注目則是梅克爾2005年崛起時，這位德國總理開始穿起她的招牌服裝：直筒褲和斜口袋的對比三鈕扣外套。

And it reached critical mass when Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, took a similar approach during her first presidential campaign, in 2010 (and thereafter), with an unfailing allegiance to three-quarter-length-sleeved jackets over simple dresses and trousers.
服裝形象在巴西總統狄爾馬．羅塞芙身上達到群聚效應，她從2010年首度競選總統起，也採類似作法，死忠地穿著簡單的洋裝或長褲，外罩七分袖外套。

Ms. Sturgeon’s wardrobe differs slightly from that of the above troika thanks to its slightly more feminine detailing, but the impression is the same. It is the female equivalent of the male suit combined with a strategic use of color. Together this creates a quasi uniform whose familiarity and subconscious accessibility combat the increasing noise around female dress, while nevertheless acknowledging, and exploiting, a certain level of gender differentiation (David Cameron can’t exactly wear a tangerine suit, no matter how much they might like to). And that moves the conversation from one about clothes to one about policies.
拜一些較女性化的細節所賜，史德金的穿著與上述三巨頭略顯不同，不過，印象是一致的。它是和男性西裝畫上等號，結合了戰略性色彩運用的女裝。它們共同創造出一種類制服，散發的熟悉感和潛意識的親近感，不僅擊敗了女性服裝一天天升高的雜音，且還認同與善加利用某種程度的性別差異（大衛．卡麥隆不可能穿橘色西裝，無論他有多想）。而這可將對話從服裝轉移到政治。

“People went from criticizing the first minister’s clothes to appreciating them,” Ms. Mitchell of Totty Rocks said of Ms. Sturgeon’s wardrobe transformation. “And then they started listening to what she was saying.”
「托蒂．洛克斯」的米契爾談到史德金的穿著改造時說：「人們從批評首席大臣的穿著改為讚美，然後他們開始聽她說些什麼。」

Bennet Ratcliff, a political consultant and a founder of Thaw Strategies, who has worked on campaigns from Colombia to Arkansas, says: “Voters take comfort from the idea someone is assuming the familiar mantle of leadership. They see it, even if they don’t identify exactly what they are seeing. Fashion changes the way they think about candidates on a very personal, subconscious level.”
從哥倫比亞到阿肯色州從事選戰工作的「解凍戰略」創辦人、競選顧問班尼特．雷克里夫說：「選民會因某人穿著他們熟悉的領袖斗篷而感安心。他們看見服裝，雖然並無法真的判別他們看到的是什麼。服裝會在非常個人與潛意識的層面上改變選民對候選人的觀感。」

None of this has escaped Ms. Sturgeon, who has been upfront about the role that fashion plays in politics. In April, in an interview with ITV’s “Tonight” show, she said, “You have to be thinking about what you’re wearing, but you don’t want to be thinking about it at the expense of what you really need to be thinking about.”
史德金對這一切瞭若指掌，她一向坦率面對服裝在政治上扮演的角色。4月間她接受英國獨立電視台「今夜」節目訪問時說：「你必須思考你的穿著，但你不希望因為思考穿著，而忘了去思考該思考的東西。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/fashion/nicola-sturgeon-cloaked-in-a-new-mantle-of-power.html

2015-06-02聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版左