What now for the Über-Mensch?

The latest string to former MP Louise Mensch's bow is a fashion website

Mensch: 'I felt I no longer had to wear the straitjacket of the uniform of the professional woman' (Getty Images)

Since resigning as Tory MP for Corby last August to focus on her family and join her husband in New York, Louise Mensch hasn’t exactly become a lady who lunches. While there was much speculation as to what the 41-year-old might get up to in her new home, even her husband, music manager Peter Mensch, hinted that politics would be left behind.

“Thank God she doesn’t have a vote in America,” he told one Sunday newspaper.

Lacking the profile in New York that she enjoyed in the UK, it makes sense that Mensch has been pressing on in the fields of publishing and online, which allow her work to be accessed by those familiar with her. Still, she’s managed to build up quite a muddling portfolio, the latest addition to which is the launch this week of her fashion blog, Unfashionista, billed as “a lazy girl’s guide to gloss”.

“Since I left Parliament I’ve been getting more interested in fashion,” Mensch told The Guardian. “I felt I no longer had to wear the straitjacket of the uniform of the professional woman who goes into an office every day.”

Unfashionista was launched just a week after the announcement that her social-networking site, Menschn, a joint venture with former Labour digital advisor Luke Bozier, was to close. Set up as a topic-based rival to Twitter, it seems the pair fell out after he reportedly refused to resign from the company in the wake of an arrest and bail on charges unrelated to the site.

She’s also been busy lending her outspoken views to The Sun, where her columns have covered everything from US politics (vote Mitt!) to the Royal succession laws (Camilla for Queen!) and the Pope’s resignation (John Paul II managed to carry on till the end!). She’s also continued with her Glamour magazine pieces, now with added “Englishwoman in New York” insights (they’re so groomed!).

But Unfashionista is perhaps the most surprising move so far from the former chick-lit author. For a woman who in the past has complained about being judged on her appearance, the blog includes features such as “What Men Want: Face”, with tips on how to apply slap your man would approve of.

More promising is a slideshow she’s made of the worst pictures of her; but even the “hall of shame” eventually throws up more flattering pictures (to highlight the difference diet, exercise and effort makes) and ends on a glossy picture of her in evening dress, an up ’do and false eyelashes. Taken at the White House, natch.