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Well, of course we had to invite Sinead McKeefry back to style our AW collection, given that she has shone a serious light on heritage dressing on BBC’s The Traitors over the past three years. We have long admired her modern take, embracing chunky knitwear, tweed and plaid, and, of course, our cashmere wristwarmers in her styling.
Sinead originally studied textile design at Buckinghamshire College, where her talent quickly stood out. It earned her both a place and a bursary at the prestigious Central Saint Martins, under the tutelage of the legendary Louise Wilson, former Head of the MA Fashion Design course. Sinead admits Louise "scared the living daylights out of me. I was quite taken aback by her tough-love way of teaching, but she highlighted the importance of research".
She then assisted Charlotte Stockdale, providing Sinead with vast exposure to the industry and the opportunity to work on shoots with Mario Testino and Vogue, as well as styling ’90s girl bands such as All Saints. Working for free, although enjoying the perks of free tickets to shows and performances, she looks back fondly: "It was a really brilliant, crazy time."
TV called, and she found herself styling all of the ‘cheesy pop bands and singers’ before progressing to styling some of Britain’s prime-time TV presenters, think Fern Cotton, Amanda Holden and, of course, Claudia Winkleman. One thing is for sure, Sinead can follow a brief and has range, whilst similarly injecting her own references into her work.
Now, Sinead McKeefry is renowned for her styling. "I love heritage and I’m really classic at heart, but then I like just to give something a bit of a twist," and that is exactly what her edit with Brora highlights. Her styling mixes Harris Tweed checks with striped accessories; she pulls and plays on colours from our Fair Isle knitwear, and balances femininity with workwear-style boots.
Growing up, Sinead would spend a lot of time in Donegal, 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, big stompy boots, all of that was second nature to me."
‘I wanted to keep the beautiful Brora heritage at the forefront but with a twist, mixing in some of the tailoring and the feminine floral embroidered blouse for autumn-winter and layering knits with oversized coats again to give an eclectic edit.’
Sinead McKeefry, Stylist