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Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister's wife, has resorted to renting expensive designer clothes for official functions, it has been disclosed.
Mrs Brown pays hundreds of pounds of her own money to rent the items - including a ￡9,000 top worn at last week's G20 summit events with other leaders' spouses.
Mrs Brown's approach is in stark contrast to that adopted by her predecessor, Cherie Blair, who was criticised for receiving free clothes or discounts worth thousands of pounds from top designers. Carole Caplin, Mrs Blair's lifestyle guru, is said to have negotiated many of the discounts amid concern from senior civil servants at the time.
For recent banquets with foreign leaders and the Lord Mayor, Mrs Brown has rented dresses from Amanda Wakeley, the British designer. She wore one of Amanda Wakeley's dresses for the state banquet with the President of Mexico last week.
She is also understood to have rented dresses and jackets from Brett Lintner and Graeme Black - including a jacket she wore to the official G20 summit dinner.
The rentals typically cost about 10 percent of the retail price which means that Mrs Brown regularly incurs bills running into hundreds of pounds for her outfits. The money cannot be recouped.
Mrs Brown is said to usually wear clothes from high-street retailers such as Marks & Spencer and New Look. However, a friend of the Prime Minister's wife, said: "Sarah thinks it's important to dress well for big State occasions, and renting her dresses makes that a bit more affordable."
Mrs Brown was a successful public-relations executive who owned her own company. However, she gave up paid work when her husband was Chancellor to avoid any conflict of interest. She is thought to have taken out a mortgage on a flat owned by the couple which helps fund her spending while her husband remains Prime Minister.
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(Agencies) |
有消息透露，英國(guó)首相夫人莎拉?布朗在出席正式場(chǎng)合時(shí)所穿的昂貴名品禮服均為租借而來(lái)。
布朗夫人通常是自掏腰包，花幾百英鎊租借這些服裝，其中包括上周她與各國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人夫人出席G20峰會(huì)時(shí)所穿的一件價(jià)值九千英鎊的上衣。
布朗夫人的做法與前首相夫人切麗?布萊爾形成鮮明對(duì)比。切麗曾因接受頂級(jí)設(shè)計(jì)師贈(zèng)予的價(jià)值數(shù)千英鎊的免費(fèi)服裝或折扣而受到指責(zé)。據(jù)稱(chēng)，她的形象顧問(wèn)卡羅爾?卡普林多次參與砍價(jià)，當(dāng)時(shí)很多高級(jí)政府官員對(duì)此不滿。
為出席近期的外國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和倫敦金融城市長(zhǎng)晚宴等活動(dòng)，布朗夫人從英國(guó)設(shè)計(jì)師阿曼達(dá)?威克麗那里租借了禮服。在上周的墨西哥總統(tǒng)招待國(guó)宴上，莎拉所穿的一套裙裝就租自這位設(shè)計(jì)師。
她還從布雷特?林特爾和格內(nèi)木?布萊克等設(shè)計(jì)師那租借過(guò)裙裝和上衣，其中包括她在G20峰會(huì)的官方宴會(huì)上所穿的一件上衣。
這些服裝的租金一般為其零售價(jià)的10%，這意味著布朗夫人通常要花費(fèi)幾百英鎊租借服裝。而這些花費(fèi)不能報(bào)銷(xiāo)。
據(jù)稱(chēng)，布朗夫人經(jīng)常在馬莎百貨和New Look等商業(yè)街零售店選購(gòu)服裝。而首相夫人的一位朋友說(shuō)：“莎拉認(rèn)為在重要的國(guó)事場(chǎng)合穿得體面一些很重要，而對(duì)于她來(lái)說(shuō)，租借在財(cái)力上更能承受?！?/font>
布朗夫人曾自己開(kāi)公司，是一位成功的公關(guān)主管，但當(dāng)布朗就任英國(guó)財(cái)政大臣后，為避免利益沖突她辭掉了工作。據(jù)稱(chēng)在布朗擔(dān)任首相期間，莎拉將她與布朗共有的一處公寓作為抵押，向銀行借錢(qián)支付日常開(kāi)銷(xiāo)。
相關(guān)閱讀
英首相布朗獲評(píng)最煩人演講者
英國(guó)：布朗首相是個(gè)工作狂？！
（實(shí)習(xí)生許雅寧 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
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