Since her husband, Andy Burnham, took office at Number 10 earlier this summer, Marie-France Van Heel has quietly become a new fashion figure to watch. Her looks have leaned on British design across the price spectrum, from Victoria Beckham to Hobbs, and she shows no sign of changing that approach. Like a lot of women, her instinct is to mix.
On Saturday August 22, Van Heel joined her husband and daughter at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool to watch Everton play Crystal Palace. She skipped any team colours in favour of a soft, blush-toned outfit: a pleated nude dress with a distinctly Princess-of-Wales feel, layered under a white three-quarter-sleeve jacket, finished with her favourite large, square-framed Gucci sunglasses.
It was her shoes, though, that pulled focus, and they came with a very accessible price tag. The pair she wore keys straight into autumn’s biggest shoe trend, and the near-identical version is available from Next for £26, the kind of high-low mix that makes a look feel real rather than remote.
That instinct is what makes her worth following. Pairing designer pieces with a £26 high-street shoe, or a Victoria Beckham dress with something from Hobbs, is exactly how most people actually dress, and it lands better than a head-to-toe luxury outfit ever could. Van Heel wears clothes the way her audience does, which is precisely why that audience is paying attention.
For anyone eyeing the season’s shoe trend without a designer budget, her Liverpool outfit doubles as a shopping tip. The look is polished and current, but the standout piece costs less than lunch for two, proof that the most-watched wardrobes are often the most attainable.
