Fashion Cameron was a creative director at the British accessories brand
Smythson of
Bond Street, from 1997 until May 2010, winning a British
Glamour Magazine Award for Best Accessory Designer in 2009. She took on a part-time creative consultancy role at Smythson after her husband became prime minister. From 2011 to 2015, Cameron was on the judging panel for the Vogue Fashion Fund alongside
Victoria Beckham,
Alexandra Shulman, and
Lisa Armstrong. She was an ambassador for the
British Fashion Council playing a prominent role in
London Fashion Week. In 2013, Cameron was named in ''
Tatler's
Top 10 Best Dressed List. In 2015, Cameron was named In Vanity Fair'' International Best-Dressed List. After
her husband's 2016 resignation as prime minister, Cameron founded Cefinn, a womenswear brand based in London, making "trend-free clothing for women who moved between roles, in fabrics that didn't need to be
dry-cleaned". and went on sale in February 2017. The name
Cefinn (pronounced 'Seffin') is formed from the initials of her four children (Ivan, Nancy, Elwen, and Florence) between the first and last letters of
Cameron. While Cameron suggested her brand's image might be hurt by her husband, Cameron has volunteered for Dress for Success, a nonprofit organisation that gives free clothes and advice about job interviews to unemployed women. In October 2012, she held a benefit for them at Number 10. Cameron is an ambassador for the charity
Save the Children. In March 2013, after visiting
Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Cameron said: "As a mother, it is horrifying to hear the harrowing stories from the children I met today, no child should ever experience what they have. With every day that passes, more children and parents are being killed, more innocent childhoods are being smashed to pieces."
Other issues Cameron is credited with coining the phrase "There is such a thing as society; it's just not the same thing as the state". This has been said several times by
David Cameron, including in his victory speech following his victory in the
Conservative leadership election in 2005. It is seen as a rejoinder to
Margaret Thatcher's famous comment, frequently misquoted as "
there is no such thing as society". Samantha and David Cameron are members of the
Chipping Norton set. ==References==