The turret is occupied, the capes steamed, the knives sharpened… The Celebrity Traitors is back. In a game where duplicity is not just encouraged but handsomely rewarded, you can be sure of only a few things: a) nobody should be trusted, b) the chalk boards will be scrawled with some ingeniously misspelled names, and c) Claudia Winkleman’s outfits will be, well, killer.
The woman behind her Traitors look, stylist Sinead McKeefry, has worked with Winkleman for 18 years. ‘The feedback was so amazing from the get-go,’ McKeefry tells me. ‘I was so surprised by the reaction. It was so lovely, from people who would post messages on Instagram from fashion press to people within my industry.’
The Winkleman power wardrobe has become as much of a phenomenon as the show. The look came naturally to McKeefry. She loved camping when she was younger and spend a lot of time in Donegal growing up, visiting her Irish family. ‘I thought my cousins who were older than me were the coolest thing ever because they walked around in battered up Levi’s, tweed jackets that had been handed down with arm patches on them and great Aran knits,’ she says. ‘I’ve always been so into that type of dressing. I like being outdoors, I love good old wax jackets, big stompy boots, all of that was second nature to me.’
Although there have been stylistic shifts over the seasons, McKeefry had a clear vision since the beginning. ‘It’s a little bit punky, a little but grungy-meets-countryside,’ she says. Staples on her mood board include ‘old McQueen references, old references from The Face, Dazed, and i-D. I love Amanda Harlech’s style. I love monochromatic. I love women in menswear, all the old Saint Laurent references of the Smoking jackets and things like that.’ One season the starting point was Princess Anne meets Madonna (in her Guy Ritchie days) meets Ronnie Corbett.
For this season of The Celebrity Traitors, she again ticks in to a buffet of trad-meets-rebel references. ‘We kind of agreed that it was like Artful Dodger meets Peaky Blinders, meets Toad of Toad Hall, and then you’ve got a tiny bit of The Fonz thrown in,’ she laughs.
McKeefry laughs a lot. Upbeat and energetic, she - and, in turn, Winkleman (or ‘Claude’ as she knows her) - had a refreshingly unpretentious and democratic approach to fashion. They’re not scared of a touch of camp (like the black wool ‘Celebrities’ cape from Luxury Family Affair) and love the high street as much as they do their designers, independent names as much as big brands. ‘It’s not as if I’m always looking for a luxury label to do that work for me,’ McKeefry says. That openness translates to a mix-and-match spirit in terms of brands (Decathlon jodhpurs with a Chanel jacket) and aesthetic (frothy maxi skirts with robust, toasty knits, say.)
‘What I love about Claudia is she’s not precious. And I’m not precious. We make a decision in an instant and, once we’ve made it, we stick with it,’ says McKeefry. ‘Claudia is fun. She’s quick paced. She’s so funny. She doesn’t take herself seriously.’
There’s a gameness that spurs on McKeefry and Winkleman’s collaboration (it helps that their personal styles are simpatico too: ‘Claudia and I often end up looking like twins.’) From the off there has been room for happy accidents. Back in the first season, a bit of a learning curve for all involved, it was decided at the very last minute that Winkleman would need a different outfit for the Round Table scene. McKeefry had been recently working with Rylan Clark and realized his velvet jackets would fit the brief. Problem solved.
And remember the gargantuan shaggy Saint Laurent coat from the second season? ‘We ended up calling that coat “Mick” because we were like, the person who wears this coat obviously lives in a cave, obviously has a beard, obviously only comes out twice a year. He’s called Mick. He’s covered in leaves,’ she says. ‘We were howling.’
Or what about the famous fingerless gloves? McKeefry initially sourced those hoping to convince production they wouldn’t work after they’d asked her to do a murder glove. ‘Not my vibe at all! So I hopped on Amazon and ordered a pair of fingerless, pleather red gloves for £20 hoping that everyone would hate them and they’d go, “That’s a rubbish idea,”’ she says with a laugh. Fast forward to this season and, thanks to the demand, ‘Now even I can’t get them!’
McKeefry’s Celebrity Traitors kit for this season includes many of her hallmark style stamps. ‘The COS fine polo-neck knit that I’ve used for the last three series. The Spanx leggings that you’ll have seen a trillion times, the Me+Em Forever trousers, which are like a classic tuxedo trouser. And this year I’ve introduced another trouser shape, which has become quite a signature, from Nili Lotan.’
There’s also the return of the Church’s brogues that Winkleman really loves (‘she’s got a collection that spans 20 years’) and the cosy heritage knits that are a Traitors cornerstone, like cashmere from Brora, a black vest from Genevieve Sweeney or fingerless gloves by Hambro & Miller. Sweeping skirts (a full-length Connolly one, for example), structured black dresses (Shushu Tong) and great coats (Loewe) all return.
The white shirt also makes a comeback, but this time it’s elevated to main character status. The puffy ruffle neck that made a dramatic entrance in the first episode is Comme des Garçons menswear (‘Comme can do no wrong in my eyes’). Another, with a chin-skimming high neck, is custom-made by this ‘really beautiful’ independent boutique in Hastings, Warp & Weft; another is from Darcy Clothing in Lewes, which specialises in accurate historical replica menswear shirts from the 16th century to the 1950s.
One of McKeefry’s favourite pieces - and the first she bought for this season - is a Vivienne Westwood tartan kilt-and-trousers hybrid. ‘I bought them way before we even started doing fittings,’ explains McKeefry, who scored them on Vestiaire Collective. ‘Finding these trousers was just like, oh my god, this is a gift! I had them hung in my office. They’re beautiful. They are so cool. They just set the tone for the whole thing.’
Considering how embedded she is in the world of The Traitors, you might be surprised to learn that McKeefry doesn’t actually go to Scotland for filming. Rather, the wardrobe is painstakingly strategised in London, over several fittings, looks planned ‘down to whatever sock you’re going to wear with that shoe’. She remains ‘on call 24/7’ during filming, however, in case of emergency (the Great British weather and all that) and ‘because Claudia’s doing crazy things like having spray tans at two o’clock in the morning,’ she says giggling. ‘I love it, I wouldn’t have it any other way’.
One of the bonuses of not going is that McKeefry can sit down and watch the action unfold without spoilers just like the rest of us (also like the rest of us, she has a strict ‘no talking!’ policy when it’s on).
So, the big question, what would she be: a Faithful or Traitor? ‘I’d have to be a Faithful. I’m a terrible liar,’ she says immediately. Makes sense - a great stylist knows how to keep it real.
Watch ‘The Celebrity Traitors’ on BBC One and iPlayer
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