Unlike Michelle Obama or Carla Bruni Sarkozy, whose clothes are scrutinized the world over, Canada's political-wife-in-chief has kept a low profile in the style department.
Since her husband became Prime Minister in 2006, Laureen Harper has been better known for her motorcycle than her fondness for couture, but that image - and her interest in fashion, especially Canadian - show signs of evolving.
A couple of weeks ago, she appeared alongside her husband on the evening news, looking chic in a long-sleeved, black-wool Lida Baday dress accessorized with a tasteful gold necklace by Toronto designer Rita Tesolin.
And at this month's National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa, where the PM made headlines for tickling the ivories and crooning, Laureen Harper was vivacious in a red, jewel-encrusted dress by Montreal designer Andy Thê-Anh.
Full disclosure: I have been hyperconscious of her recent ensembles because I have had the pleasure, via a couple of meetings and a shopping excursion, of introducing her to some of this country's fashion talent.
Harper admits dressing up can make her anxious. "I'm not one of those women who dress effortlessly," she told me. "I wish I was. I'm very jealous of those women who throw something on and look great. That is definitely not me. By day I'm the fleece-wearing mom and a few times a year I get to dress up and go out with my husband."
I met Harper last year, when she invited me and my mother to 24 Sussex Dr. for dinner. A self-admitted Fashion Television fan, she had heard from a mutual friend that my mum and I would be in town for a Holocaust memorial. During dinner, I suggested a trip to Toronto, which turned out to be a day-long trek through the showrooms of Baday, Wayne Clark, Joeffer Caoc, Rosemarie Umetsu and Greta Constantine.
The petite and affable Harper, who grew up on a farm outside Calgary, gamely tried on outfit after outfit, from the swanky to the dramatic. The excursion, however, was no mad shopping spree: The PM's wife decided on just a handful of outfits - including the black Lida Baday dress and an elegant purple suit by Caoc - that she felt she could get a lot of use from.
When the prospect of attending a swank dinner party alongside Obama and Bruni at the G8 summit in Italy came up this past summer, Harper was eager to make a Canadian fashion statement. "I think that both of these women are beautiful, and great ambassadors for their fashion industries," she says. I suggested Andy Thê-Anh for her G8 dress, and we met in Montreal to visit his Peel Street boutique. It was there that Harper fell in love with the fab little red dress. As it turned out, there was no big dinner party at the G8 summit after all, so Harper delayed her dress's debut until the recent gala in Ottawa.
"I love the colour of the dress. Like every other woman, I wear lots of black, so this is a bit out of my comfort zone," she admits. Harper was also taken with the garment's beautiful beaded straps, which, she says, "took the stress out of picking jewellery, as I didn't need any."
By her own admission, Harper has learned a lot lately about the merits of dressing well. "Great clothes give you confidence," she says. "It's all about the fit. And I've also learned the value of a great pair of shoes that look great and are comfortable - the higher, the better."
If you're thinking, however, that Harper's brush with high style heralds a fashionista-in-the-making, think again. "Most Canadians wouldn't know me if they ran into me on a sidewalk," she says. "I'm very rarely recognized, and I like that."
But she is eager, she says, to show support for Canadian designers, especially in a tough economic climate.
"I'll do whatever I can to help Canadian fashion," she says. "I'm no Carla Bruni or Michelle Obama. They're both tall and beautiful, and look great all the time. No one will ever mistake me for a fashion icon, but I will try my best to make these designers proud when I wear their clothes."
Jeanne Beker is the host of FashionTelevision.