Claudia Winkleman’s tartan goth Traitors style shouldn’t work – but it does

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Is my wardrobe crying out for a kilt? It’s not a query I believed I’d ask myself. But then I didn’t reckon on the Claudia Winkleman impact. In the second episode of The Traitors’ second season, the presenter strode into the breakfast room carrying a tartan pleated skirt in shades of inexperienced and navy, and I’ve not been capable of cease fascinated about it since.

In concept, Winkleman ought to’ve appeared like she was cosplaying as a bagpiper or paying homage to an old-fashioned uniform. And but she didn’t – she seemed unbelievable. But the presenter has kind for pulling off seems that maybe shouldn’t work, but undeniably do. Think of the eye-skimming full fringe. The thick eyeliner. The orange tan. If the remainder of us tried to recreate this signature style, it’d most likely elevate eyebrows, or result in pointed feedback about whether or not we’d been on vacation lately. For Winkleman, although, it’s a part of her distinctive attraction, making her one of the vital recognisable girls on British telly. She’s even joked that her distinctive look helped her construct her profession: “I used to get work because if you couldn’t remember a name, they’d say ‘That weird one with a fringe,’” she informed The Times final yr.

The first sequence of The Traitors debuted on BBC One again in December 2022, and have become an sudden scores smash, pulling in a median viewers of 5.4 million viewers per episode; general, it clocked up 34 million viewers on BBC iPlayer. Winkleman is definitely an enormous consider its colossal reputation, and earned a Bafta for greatest leisure efficiency for her presenting function (her fourth nomination and first win).

Yes, the backstabbing, betrayals and thoughts video games that contestants ended up embroiled in made for addictive viewing – but so did Winkleman’s English heritage meets fashion-forward panto villain style. Dreamedup with the assistance of her long-time stylist Sinead McKeefry, who studied trend at Central Saint Martins beneath the legendary tutor Louise Wilson and has beforehand labored at The Face journal, Winkleman’s Traitors look mirrored her new guise because the goth woman of the manor. Swapping the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom to stalk the corridors of a citadel within the Scottish Highlands meant that sequins and smiles had been out; of their place was knitwear so outsized it continually appeared on the verge of engulfing the presenter (or at the least teaming up together with her famously vision-obscuring fringe to swallow up her face utterly). The general aesthetic was a intelligent “mixture of country style and dark glamour”, with a touch of Scandi noir (that’d be the jumpers) and TikTok-favoured darkish academia, says Jennifer Richards, trend educational and analysis tutor on the Royal College of Art.

Also on the agenda had been tweed blazers and argyle checks, pussybow blouses and Barbour jackets, accessorised with an array of faintly villainous fingerless gloves (all the higher for rubbing her palms collectively in glee when it all kicks off on the spherical desk). Oh, and most of those outfits additionally seemed good with a darkish inexperienced hooded cape thrown over them, when Winkleman was communing together with her “traitors” (ie the gamers tasked with eliminating their fellow contestants from the sport, whereas pretending to be 100 per cent “faithful”) at the hours of darkness. Throw within the TV star’s heavy rings of eyeliner and trademark radiant pretend tan (she as soon as informed The Mirror that she “feel[s] better when I’m orange” and has claimed that she used previous tea luggage and Bisto granules to get the glow when she was a cash-strapped scholar), and also you take a look that undoubtedly does not make senseon paper. And but Winkleman pulled it off with aplomb each time – and made us wish to costume just like the mysterious proprietor of a haunted nation pile, too. 

Winkleman has beforehand cited former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld as a style icon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then,“her Traitors wardrobe perfectly blends a Parisian effortlessness with the structure and substance of haute countryside looks,” in keeping with Krishan Parmar, a star stylist who has labored with stars like Vicky McClure, Anita Rani and Lashana Lynch. Quiet luxurious, he provides, has been an enormous pattern over the previous yr (in no small half due to Succession’s Kendall Roy and his obscenely priced baseball caps) “and Claudia has nailed this … but instead has tailored it to her surroundings in the Highlands”. Jennifer Richards agrees, pointing to Winkleman’s emphasis on “classic tailoring and timeless pieces” whereas she’s on the job. But whereas a few of Winkleman’s garments are from excessive finish manufacturers like Saint Laurent, she notes, they “can be easily replicated through simple silhouettes and high street dupes” – which makes all of them the extra interesting for these of us working on a narrower price range. Similarly, McKeefry typically finishes off these seems with equipment from excessive avenue manufacturers, which “are far more accessible pieces for anyone to own”, provides Richards. 

The sartorial bar was fairly excessive for season two, but Winkleman and McKeefry have risen to the problem. The first three episodes, which landed on iPlayer final Wednesday and performed out on consecutive nights on prime-time BBC One, have been an actual deal with for followers of the presenter’s idiosyncratic trend. 

So far, her outfits have spanned the high-low spectrum, from a £749 double breasted coat by luxurious label Holland Cooper, beforehand worn by the Princess of Wales, to a pair of crimson leather-based fingerless gloves from Amazon. She’s teamed honest isle knits with checked trousers tucked into wellies – heritage model Hunter is her regular go-to – like an impeccably turned out Mr Toad from The Wind within the Willows. (I assume that Winkleman wouldn’t be notably fazed by this comparability, seeing as she beforehand summed up her season one Traitors look as “Princess Anne meets Ronnie Corbett meets Madonna when she married Guy Ritchie” – she and co-conspirator McKeefry know the worth of an eclectic reference level). And her night seems have had “a bit of a rock and roll edge”, like “the pairing of Dr Martens with her signature leggings and Saint Laurent blazer combinations,” notes Holly Macnaghten, a star stylist who has labored with the likes of Bridgerton actor Regé-Jean Page and Everything I Know About Love star Emma Appleton. “It’s those slightly off-beat pairings that I think she and her stylist have really nailed.” 

Perhaps the most important speaking level, although, has been one standout outfit from episode two, when Winkleman wore a inexperienced mohair kilt from Scottish model Brora (the one which impressed my feverish web searches final week) with an outsized khaki cable knit sweater from the Japanese menswear label Kapital, a model that’s “quirkier in its approach” than her regular Traitors fare, says Richards. On every elbow was Kapital’s shiny yellow smiley face emblem, in lieu of a standard leather-based patch. 

It instantly felt like a traditional Traitors Claudia look: countryside stylish, with a recent spin. “I love how her looks this season feel totally location appropriate with strong nods to Scottish heritage throughout … but are all given a modern twist that feels cool rather than cosplay,” says Macnaghten. Viewers had been obsessed too. Since 3 January, when the episode arrived on iPlayer, luxurious trend web site Mr Porter has seen a 98 p.c elevate in searches for Kapital versus the earlier week, with gross sales practically doubling too. The khaki jumper bought out utterly on the positioning after Winkleman wore it on the present, but it’s nonetheless accessible in brown. 

What’s notably interesting about Winkleman’s Traitors look is that, as Macnaghten notes, it by no means seems like fancy costume – and though it’s stuffed with nods to her Scottish backdrop, you may nonetheless really feel her character shine by means of as she leans into the present’s knowingly camp really feel. “There is a playfulness to it – the pussy bows, the smiley faces,” says Parmar. “They prove that her style is serious, but it’s also about having fun.” A trend icon who doesn’t take herself too significantly – no surprise we’re 100 per cent trustworthy to Winkleman’s style.