British PM Theresa May's love for a good statement shoe:

An eye for style

British newspapers described British Prime Minister Theresa May as a politician with a penchant for thigh-high patent boots, mini-skirts and short dresses. The former home secretary has worn Burberry to cabinet meetings, debated in Vivienne Westwood and stunned in Roland Mouret at a party conference. Some fashion designers have suggested that as she changes her government cabinet, she should overhaul her famously fashionable dress sense too.

They say the PM has an eye for style and current trend. She has a strong signature look that makes her appear both formidable and accessible at the same time. People like her style as it's not as formidable as Margaret Thatcher or as groomed and tailored as someone like Samantha Cameron, one newspaper quoted a stylist.

Challenges

"I like clothes and I like shoes. One of the challenges for women in the workplace is to be ourselves, and I say you can be clever and like clothes. You can have a career and like clothes," Theresa May said at the Women in the World Summit last year. Like so many other power women - some of whom hold office - Theresa's outfits are modest, yet full of personality. Her famous leopard pumps, which she wore when she was sworn in as leader, didn't feel too playful when paired with a sophisticated colour-block coat. Instead, they're a daring step in the right direction and a call to all ladies in the spotlight to wear what they like.

Figure

Queen Elizabeth welcomed a vibrantly dressed Theresa May at the start of an audience in Buckingham Palace, London, where she invited the former Home Secretary to become Prime Minister and form a new government on July 13.

In college Theresa May was a keen debater. In reports of the Oxford Union debates at the time, she cut quite a figure. In one debate on abortion she is described as 'the statuesque Miss Brasier burning with emotion in her red dress'. By 1977, she had graduated, taking a job in the Bank of England while her husband remained at university. She was part of a high-flying set that also included Alan Duncan, the former international development minister, and Damian Green.

Theresa arrived at St Hugh's College, Oxford, to study geography in October 1974, just as Harold Wilson was winning the second general election of that year. Wilson's victory was the talk of the university and at a college breakfast not long after, the young Theresa Brasier turned to her friend Alicia Collinson and said she would one day be prime minister.

"My memory's hazy but it was the first term at Oxford in 1974. We were at breakfast and she said something about wanting to be prime minister," the Telegraph quoted Collinson.

Her friends recall, according to the Telegraph, Theresa had many male friends in college; but no one was special. Then in her final year, Philip came along. There was Philip and nobody else since then. The pair met after an introduction by Benazir Bhutto, who would go on to become Pakistan's prime minister, at an Oxford Conservative disco in 1976.

Colleague

Theresa got married to Philip May, an Oxford colleague in September 1980 at the age of 23 at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Wheatley in Oxfordshire, where Miss Brasier's father was vicar.

A year later, tragedy struck. The Rev Hubert Brasier was driving his Morris Marina to a nearby church where he was due to conduct the evening Sunday service when he was in collision with a Range Rover on the A40 outside Oxford. Brasier, 64, died of head and spine injuries a few hours later.

A few months later, Theresa's mother Zaidee, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, also died. At the age of 25, Theresa May was suddenly an orphan.

Philip May who was initially interested in politics, steered away from politics allowing his wife to take the lead.

Ever since those dark times in October 1981, when her father died so suddenly and tragically, he has remained her bedrock.