Although matters of substance and the future of a country are, nominally, the issues at stake when Italy goes to the polls on Sunday, in many ways the styles of the two prime ministerial candidates - incumbent Silvio Berlusconi and rival Romano Prodi - have been as carefully perused as their policies. For while in many countries Berlusconi's Cuban heels and double-breasted suits and Prodi's fitted black sweaters wouldn't be an issue, in Italy, what politicians wear swings votes.

"It's important to have a certain elegance," insists Ugo Gussalli Beretta, president of the family-run international outfitter and gunsmith. "Clothes say something about personality, especially to an Italian. Prodi and Berlusconi have different mentalities and therefore different styles."

Long-serving politicians everywhere are under pressure to maintain a fresh look, maintains Judy Fearn, an image consultant who has worked with recent leaders of Britain's political parties. This is particularly true in Italy, she says, where "all styles change - art, culture, architecture, clothes and cars. Their politicians also need to adapt with the times."

Thus, while Berlusconi may have compared himself to historical figures such as Napoleon, Churchill, Moses and Jesus Christ, he has also appointed a full-time make-up artist to join his long-term personal stylist, Miti Simonetto. (Throughout the campaign, Vladimir Luxuria, a transsexual candidate in Prodi's coalition, has emphasised the similarities between left and right by noting that, like Berlusconi, he favours make-up and heels.)

The search for the centre ground and broader appeal has also prompted both the main candidates to experiment with "dressing down" - a political trend lamented by Umberto Angeloni, chief executive of the fashion house Brioni.

"The general decline in formality has taken a toll," he says. "Politicians often try to get closer to the masses by forfeiting the suit-and-tie image in favour of a vague and ugly notion of casual wear. The lowest expression of elegance is reached when politicians dress casually. This is when you can tell the amateurs from the professionals."

The campaign has also had its very own T-shirt controversy - Roberto Calderoli, a minister in Berlusconi's government, designed one for showcasing the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed on TV. And red togas have rarely been absent from the campaign exchanges, given Berlusconi's habit of mocking Italy's ruling elite and judiciary, or, as he calls them, the toghe rosse. Then there are the memories of Berlusconi's bandana, worn in the summer of 2004; to some, the premier's choice of Bon Jovi-style headwear after a hair transplant was disgraceful, though that summer bandana sales actually rose.

Overall, says Angeloni, Italy's leaders have set a poor tone for her voters. "The level of elegance in this election has not matched the image and traditions of our country." In Berlusconi's case, Angeloni believes the premier's best efforts fall generally short of national standards. "His suits are made by Caraceni but, because he likes to project a more powerful image than his body would normally command, the tailoring gimmicks employed - wide shoulders, thick padding, large lapels - make the suits look as if they belong to someone else," he says.

On the other hand, says Beretta, Berlusconi's style fits his beliefs: "His clothes are more like that of an international businessman compared to Prodi, who, after all, is a real professor."

Only footwear has offered voters a clear choice between candidates. Prodi's conventional shoes are measured, classic Italian. But at 5ft 6in (167cm), Berlusconi is devoted to heels and rialzino - rubber insteps which give the wearer extra centimetres, and which inspire thoughts "of the court or the underworld", according to the bespoke shoemaker Olga Berluti, whose Piercing Collection also offers a lift.

"I remember Edward, the late Duke of Windsor, wanted a very special heel, lofty and tapered," recalls Berluti, who is French butof Italian descent. "I also remember a mauvais garçon - a bad boy. He was a businessman but he loved to put on bandit airs. He wanted a very special, tapered heel, the kind that Cuban bad boys wore on their boots."

Paolo Zengarini, men's wear designer at Regain, which makes shoes with Gucci and for Timothy Everest, maintains that significant heels haven't featured widely for at least five years, although "Christian Dior did have over an inch as part of its collection last winter and Tod's offers the option of rialzino". But the spat last month between Berlusconi and Diego Della Valle, chairman of Tod's, who described the former as "a tired man whose family should take him home", means the premier is unlikely to favour that particular brand.

Sartorially as well as politically, the first national TV debate last month between Prodi and Berlusconi was predictably unenlightening. Both candidates sported matching grey trousers, blue jackets and shirts with spotted ties (Berlusconi even discarded his usual power-dress cuff links).

Angeloni was underwhelmed: "Both shirts and suits were very plain - no three buttons or waistcoats - and stiff, with padding on the shoulders and heavily starched collars. It was a very banal interpretation of the so-called power suit," he says. "Forgotten were the gentlemen's style details such as the pocket square and the boutonnière."

How meaningful is all this? Only the voting booths will tell, but it's more than possible that after this weekend, Italians will echo the sentiments of many other nations and decide that, on the issues that count, politicians are really all the same.

Colin Cameron's latest book, 'Dawn Till Dusk', is published by Highdown