Cheltenham racy: how Jade Holland Cooper sexed up the Sloane Ranger look

With catwalk shows and street style both Covid impeded, television has become the place where we get our clothing kicks. Last week saw the return of that ultimate fashion-fest, The Crown. And, where we once thrilled to the rig-outs of the Princesses Margaret and Anne, so we now enter the era in which aristocratic ingénue Lady Di morphed into fashion-plate Princess Diana.

Not only did the Princess of Wales favour polka dots, big collars and novelty knits, but her Sloane roots and royal lifestyle meant she did a fabulous line in country classics. Think of the Bill Pashley tweed skirt suit she posed in on honeymoon at Balmoral, or the racy equestrian garb she donned for a Snowdon family portrait a decade later. About town, she gave heritage fabrics a city spin, resplendent in tartans and houndstooth.

Our heroine would have swooned over Holland Cooper, the go-to brand for rural living with urban dash. Her niece, Lady Kitty Spencer, is a fan. Ditto Zara Tindall, Autumn Phillips, Viscountess Weymouth, and every woman who knows that country style requires metropolitan tailoring. After all, tweedy chic is all very well in theory, but there’s a reason why Coco Chanel felt forced to create her own when holding hands with the Duke of Westminster. At its worst, tweed is stiff, bulky, scratchy, turd-toned and cut for chaps rather than chapesses. At its best, it is Holland Cooper.

The label was established in 2008 by Jade Holland Cooper, 33, the scion of a farmer and a fashion designer, who dropped out of the Royal Agricultural College to revolutionise the ghastly garb she saw about her. “It was all a bit archaic,” she tells me. “Here was a large group of women being offered such a small selection of mediocre, poorly made products. Heritage fabrics are so beautiful – one has only to look at Diana – yet nothing was being created that was structured, tailored, designed to show off the female figure.” If this has Sloane appeal, then it’s sexed-up Sloane. Some elements can be a tad bling, but one would rather look Made in Chelsea than Last of the Summer Wine.

Holland Cooper started by selling tweed minis at country fairs, cutting designs herself using the best Scottish and Yorkshire tweed. All the brand’s tailoring continues to be from this source, crafted in its London factory. Naysayers informed her that she would only ever be dealing with a limited market. More fool them.

Today, she boasts a swish Cheltenham headquarters, Edinburgh flagship, Harrods concession and thriving Bicester outlet. She employs about 60 people. Online growth has been 150 per cent up during Covid, with Americans, Germans and Swedes lining up for a bit of Brit action. The brand is worth in excess of £20 million. As for being confined to the country crowd, check out November’s Vogue, which features the label’s form-fitting lace shirt (£119) in its party checklist.

All things considered, Holland Cooper is feeling extremely now. Lockdown has put the focus on outdoor living, as a means both of exercise and social activity, while even the most high-street addicted are turning their attention to sustainable wares. HC’s tweeds could be described as “inadvertently eco”: an affordable luxury that is local with longevity. As Holland Cooper notes: “These are long-lasting products, true investment pieces. We’re never trying to chase a trend, or create fast fashion. I want women to be able to wear our pieces forever.”

Her clothes feel ageless in a way that is also very 2020. When I checked out the Bicester boutique, it was full of teens bagging bargains, my fortysomething self, and a couple of extremely modish septuagenarians. Holland Cooper is delighted: “Ralph Lauren is a brand I’ve always admired for the way in which it dresses everyone from babies to grandmas. There’s no one who couldn’t wear it. It’s the same for us.”

I first came across HC in January, instantly falling in love with the Kempton, an impeccable, thigh-skimming riding jacket-cum-coat (£449). Months later, I worship my Prince of Wales check Kempton so ardently that it reduces me to happy tears, and have since acquired a houndstooth version. In them I feel like Chanel muse Amanda Harlech – all long-limbed equestrian chic. Both are sex on legs – my boyfriend goes weak at the knees when I sport them – while also being fabulously female-friendly: never before have I been stopped so often by women demanding to know where I sourced something.

Recent bestsellers have included the Marlborough Shearling Trench in dashing Black Watch (£995), the Regency Coat (£599), snug Aviator Gilets (£449) and the swish Knightsbridge and Mayfair Blazers (from £349). Given how competitive the jeans market is, Holland Cooper is proud of her take’s cult following (from £99). Meanwhile, her ultra-flattering T-shirts (£39) are frequently bought in batches of nine.

Communication between Holland Cooper and her buyers is as close as it is constant. One need only look at her Instagram account to see the way in which she plays poster woman for her label, embodying its aesthetic for her 58,800 followers. She can find herself answering 200 questions a day, but argues that it has proved an “invaluable lifeline” during the Covid crisis when so many brands have foundered.

“To be honest, I’ve enjoyed talking to the customer and taking time to reply to everyone,” she explains. “The bigger you get, the more remote you can become. This way the consumer is part of the thought process.” The pandemic resulted in products appearing in stages rather than as coherent collections, meaning she explained each element piecemeal; something she plans to continue. The latest drop is HC’s Sherpa-lined Regency Wellingtons (from £149), marking a first foray into footwear. One longs for her riding boots.

Riding remains her favourite form of escapism – and there’s a lot to escape. For Holland Cooper doesn’t only take responsibility for her own multimillion-pound business, she is married to Julian Dunkerton, 55, co-founder and recently reinstated head of the fashion brand Superdry. Together, they own Dowdeswell Court, a £50 million Georgian mansion set in 250 acres near Cheltenham.

From here they play the part of the Cotswolds’ most glamorous power couple, juggling a string of businesses and a private jet. So significant is the pair’s hold on the area that locals are said to refer to Cheltenham as “Dunker-town”, about which Holland Cooper can be spotted in Galvan and Balmain evening dresses, rocked with vintage Chanel jewellery.

What would surprise us about their fantastically glamorous life? “The degree of grunt work,” she laughs. “We’re incredibly lucky, but we work all day every day.” At 39 weeks pregnant, she is supposed to be on maternity leave. However, work-life balance is something she is hoping will arrive with the stork. Can we expect a maternity line? “In time. The maternity offering is ghastly, just so depressing. Why should being pregnant mean having to wear the worst clothing known to man?”

Holland Cooper may be expecting a newborn for Christmas. I shall be hoping for some Holland Cooper. A Greenwich Cable sweater (£125), perhaps, or the Marlborough Trench Coat in (the very Diana) purple and green heather tartan I have my eye on; sumptuously slow style one can buy now and love forever.

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