The six ways to get Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors look, by her stylist
Forget the catwalks, and the Golden Globes red carpet, and the “New In” section of the Zara website. The person responsible for inspiring the contents of British women’s wardrobes right now is Claudia Winkleman, current darling of television as the host of The Traitors, The Piano, co-host of Strictly Come Dancing, and the soon-to-be guest host of The Graham Norton Show.
For each of these shows she strikes a balance of looking suitably theatrical and impactful on screen, nodding to the theme of the programme, while also making viewers think, “ooh, I’d love to wear something like that too”.
Winkleman’s longtime stylist, Sinead McKeefry, gets direct feedback from viewers on Instagram. Take the patchwork Loewe jacket worn in a recent episode of The Traitors: it looks relatively conservative from the front, but turns to reveal a trailing, buckled back. “That was a piece Claudia sent me,” McKeefry says. “It really is a special piece, although lots of people did send me messages going, ‘how’s she going to sit down in it?’”
While Winkleman clearly has a distinct sense of style, McKeefry is the one steering the sartorial ship. A Central Saint Martins-trained designer, she worked at The Face before building a following as a celebrity stylist. Today she also counts Fearne Cotton, Stacey Dooley and Rose Ayling-Ellis among her regular clients.
It is thanks to McKeefry that “Highland goth” has found its way into our fashion vocabulary – the term that’s been coined to describe her vision for Winkleman’s wardrobe for season three of The Traitors, and why every time Winkleman appears on screen, Google searches for her outfits spike. No wonder she’s been cast as a face of M&S (McKeefry styled that shoot too).
She says there wasn’t a specific person on this season’s moodboard but rather, a shoe – a field sports boot by old-school outfitters Purdey, to be exact. She first saw it in the brand’s catalogue. The boots in question were made from burnished, dark-brown leather, furnished with double straps, and styled with knee-high socks featuring tasselled garters.
“I saw that boot and thought, that is my inspiration,” McKeefry says. “I loved the buckles and the laces and the tassels, the mix of leathers and wool, the brown tones against the moss green, all of it. I wanted to build looks around that.”
There remains an abundance of cashmere, tartan and tweed, but with some surprises thrown in – a flute-sleeved shirt peeking out from beneath a velvet blazer cuff, or a floor-sweeping, lace gown lending drama to a plain cashmere jumper, for example.
If it has an “old money” grandeur about it, that’s because Amanda Harlech, the aristocratic model and muse of the late Karl Lagerfeld, is also an inspiration. So is Princess Anne, whose equestrian style is, says McKeefry, “always part of the mood”. A more unlikely addition to this line-up is Fagin – yes, the crime lord in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist who, in the 1968 film Oliver!, wears fingerless gloves and great coats… rather like Winkleman.
Since the programme is filmed at Ardross Castle, north of Inverness, McKeefry plucked cashmere knitwear from Scottish brands including Brora and Barrie. She also commissioned Edinburgh-based jeweller Hamilton & Inches to make Winkleman a custom signet ring, engraved with “T” for “Traitors”.
English brands feature too, both old and new, from Connolly and the aforementioned Purdey (both founded in the same century the castle was built) to Bella Freud and Holland Cooper.
“It’s more luxe than last season,” admits McKeefry, pointing out a pair of Chanel yeti boots and a Loewe buckle-adorned jacket. There are a smattering of high-street finds from Zara, Jigsaw, et al, to sate those of us on a tighter budget.
For all of the women who aspire to dress like Winkleman, there are style signatures with which she’s become synonymous. Here, McKeefry shares her six Winkleman-look essentials.
A sharp blazer
A beautifully-cut blazer is a key element in Winkleman’s Traitors wardrobe – so much so, she wears a grand total of three in episode one alone. First on screen is a classic(ish) tweed from Bella Freud. “It felt a bit more modern, because of the cut,” says McKeefry. “It’s not nipped in at the waist, which stops it from looking like something from Country Casuals.”
For evening, McKeefry swapped tweed for velvet, in the form of a burgundy jacket with pink trims that was custom-made for Winkleman by Knatchbull – a Savile Row tailor exclusively for women. For more affordable alternatives, McKeefry recommends Reiss, Whistles and Jigsaw.
Checked wool blazer, £437.50 (down from £875), Bella Freud
The essential leggings
McKeefry is evangelical about Spanx leggings. “They’re brilliantly made, with great structure,” she says. “They create the sharper silhouette that we want for some of the looks.”
By day, Winkleman wears them with a checked overshirt and Hunter wellies, and at the evening “round table”, with a Jigsaw blazer, a The Vampires Wife blouse and Bottega Veneta boots. They even feature in one of her most memorable looks – a floor-length, faux fur coat by (the sadly now-defunct brand) Raey and the aforementioned yeti boots, from Chanel’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection.
The stylist also sings the praises of Holland Cooper’s Biker jeans, which, with their generous stretch second-skin fit, form a similar function.
Spanx stretch ponte leggings, £98, Net-a-Porter
Wrist warmers
“Claudia has always worn wrist warmers,” says McKeefry, regaling how the presenter once bought pairs for the entire Strictly Come Dancing team.
When I mistakenly refer to Winkleman’s beloved wrist warmers as “fingerless gloves”, McKeefry corrects me. “Claudia is allergic to fingerless gloves,” she laughs. Her go-tos are from Brora and Johnstons of Elgin, in a variety of earthy tones.
Cashmere colour-block wrist warmers, £49 (down for £69), Brora
A menswear-inspired coat
Winkleman may not wholly approve of Fagin’s fingerless gloves, but (much more luxurious) versions of his tailored coat found their way into her Traitors wardrobe. McKeefry opted for masculine, military-tinged styles from Connolly, The Landskein, and Brora.
“The shape of it is just incredible,” McKeefry says, of the (now sold-out) blonde houndstooth Johnstons of Elgin coat that Winkleman wears over top of a Purdey tie-neck blouse, cable-knit vest and slim-fit trousers. “You’ll buy that coat once and hopefully hand it down through generations. [Imagine] the lucky grandchild who gets it when it’s a little bit battered and worn.”
Wool-blend checked coat, £99.50 (down from £199), John Lewis
Unexpected elements
What makes Winkleman’s on-screen looks so compelling are all of the visual surprises McKeefry throws in. An otherwise classic jumper is intarsia-knitted with skeleton bones (by Japanese designer, Kapital) or oversized roses (by Scottish brand, Barrie).
There’s plain knitwear, too, from Brora and Purdy and Connolly – generally worn oversized and sometimes layered with eveningwear. McKeefry’s favourite look from season three comprises a rollneck jumper and matching wrist warmers from Brora, a grey maxi coat by Irish brand The Landskein, and surprisingly, a floor-sweeping lace gown. Yet, it works. “Claude really owns it,” she says.
McKeefry doesn’t mind if outfits divide opinion. She makes reference to the two-tone, Miu Miu x Church’s brogues Winkleman wears with a pair of tartan trousers. “They’re Marmite, you either love them or hate them,” she says.
Pleated knitted maxi skirt, £45 (down from £110), Cos
The utility boots
Chunky boots make every outfit that bit cooler. Lately, Winkleman’s most-worn pair is Bottega Veneta’s Lug boot, which McKeefrey styled with leggings and blazers. “What’s really great about [the boots] is their oversized proportions,” she says. “They give a fashion twist.”
Meanwhile, Winkleman’s Dr Martens Chelsea boots proved so popular during the last series of The Traitors, McKeefry went one step further and asked the brand if they’d remake the high version, in brown. “They made it especially for us,” she tells me. Such is the power of Winkleman and her influence. Now we just need to campaign for Dr Martens to make them for the rest of us.
Platform Chelsea boots, £210, Dr Martens