How the late Queen’s British country style is inspiring fashion labels today
There are no prizes for guessing who was on the mood board when Burberry’s creative team planned its latest campaign. Olivia Colman leans against a 4x4 with lush green foliage in the background. She wears a khaki quilted coat with a distinctive Burberry checked blouse peeping out at the collar and cuffs. The images could easily be mistaken for publicity stills from Colman’s stint playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown.
The late Queen is clearly the inspiration for these shots, which feature as part of the new It’s Always Burberry Weather campaign, a slogan borrowed from the archives to reference “the robust elements of the brand’s garments and the unpredictable British weather,” according to the fashion house. Shot by Alasdair McLellan, the model Cara Delevingne also features in the campaign, posing in front of the Houses of Parliament.
If anyone excelled at dressing elegantly for the unpredictable British weather, it was Queen Elizabeth. As one episode of The Crown, in which Colman starred, attested, the late monarch’s country wardrobe was built to pass “the Balmoral test” – sturdy shoes and waterproof jackets were essential to meet the demands of long walks on the muddy moors where the elements were not allowed to be a barrier to the task in hand, be it deer stalking or putting Margaret Thatcher through her paces.
Depicting Colman – a national treasure in her own right – in quasi-Queen Elizabeth mode is a smart move from Burberry, which is currently going through a tumultuous time having fallen out of the FTSE 100 with losses expected to be reported in its next round of results. These images will remind people around the world of its long-held links with the Royal family; the company was first awarded a Royal Warrant in 1955 by Queen Elizabeth and received a second from the then-Prince of Wales in 1990. Burberry’s weatherproof coats have become entirely synonymous with the Royal family’s off-duty passion for country pursuits.
Burberry is re-cementing its own heritage but it is also tapping into a huge appetite for royal nostalgia. It is not the only fashion label to have nodded to the Queen Elizabeth country look recently. Italian designer Miuccia Prada’s label Miu Miu paid tribute to the ‘fearlessness of British style’ with its Miu Balmoral collection last month which featured wax jackets, ladylike handbags and cable-knit sweaters. Meanwhile, Fendi took Princess Anne – who has undoubtedly followed in her mother’s rural-chic footsteps – as the muse for its autumn/ winter collection, shown in Milan earlier this year. Further back, designers ranging from Dolce and Gabbana to Erdem and Max Mara’s Ian Griffiths have all paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth with their designs.
“I think the main reason why designers keep returning to the off-duty royal look, particularly over the last few years is the association that the country lifestyle has with sustainability and longevity,” reflects Rosie Harte, a historian and author of ‘The Royal Wardrobe: Peek Into the Wardrobes of History’s Most Fashionable Royals’. “The iconic images of the Queen enjoying the British countryside evoke a feeling of tradition. Unlike the clothes that royals wear for public events, which tend to be very particular to their unique lifestyle and also made fresh for each event, their country looks include well-loved, decades-old items that serve a practical purpose.”
We also love that Queen Elizabeth became an accidental style icon through her country attire. “Unlike her sister Margaret, the Queen never strove to be fashionable, only practical,” says Harte. “Her clothes had to serve the role she was playing at any given time, and it was well known that she was more comfortable in a pair of boots and a sturdy coat than a glittering frock.” Or as Suzy Menkes wrote in her 1992 book Queen and Country: “For the Queen, the country is neither an idyll nor an escape, it is her real, royal world.”
Although she is now revered as the epitome of British country cool in her brogues, kilts, cardigans, waterproof coats and wind-defying Hermès headscarves (with a Land Rover as another key accessory), this was never a look manufactured by the late Queen to win style points. She retained a no-nonsense attitude, even once she probably was aware of the look’s influence; in 2012, Dame Margaret Barbour revealed that the Queen had asked to have her old jacket re-waxed instead of getting rid of it. “It’s very desirable to have a very well-worn Barbour jacket,” Barbour said.
In Burberry’s campaign, Colman nods to this innate sense of practicality. In some pictures, she is shown with a herd of sheep in front of her. She takes it all in her stride, looking just as relaxed and happy as Queen Elizabeth would have undoubtedly done in the same surroundings.