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Sinead McKeefry is a busy woman. “I’m just at Strictly,” she tells me over the phone on a Saturday — it’s the only time we’ve been able to find that works. Not only that, she’s also been responsible for curating the look that has launched a thousand newspaper articles: Claudia Winkleman’s many show-stopping outfits on the Traitors. The looks have been spot-on for each series — who could forget the designer roll-neck knitwear that she wore in season three, or the velvet Reiss blazer — but still, McKeefry may have outdone herself for the season one premiere for the much-anticipated edition of Celebrity Traitors. It featured Winkleman wearing a statement cape with the words ‘Celebrities’ embroidered on the back, paired with some blocky boots from Givenchy (£1,795) — something that understandably sent the internet into meltdown. But McKeefry is used to that. Over the course of the show, her ‘haute country’ style has helped make the show (and Winkleman) into a style icon. “For the Celebrity Traitors, we wanted to make a difference between the contestants and Claudia,” she says. “I just assumed that people would probably be dressing in knits and tweeds and things like that. They've seen the show before. So we thought, ‘Okay, let's go down a little bit more of the punk route, a little bit more Gothic.’” These days, autumn and winter dressing feels synonymous with the Traitors ‘look’: big coats, big shoes (ideally Chelsea boots or Doc Martens), lashings of knitwear and tweed. But, importantly, Winkleman’s looks are surprisingly easy to emulate because they’re not all about high fashion. McKeefry has made a career out of mixing high-end and high street styles, which has resulted in looks that she deems “really creative, but really accessible.” Read more: how to get Claudia Winkleman’s look from Celebrity Traitors She cites the example of Claudia’s tartan trousers, which took over the airwaves last week during the third episode of the Celebrity Traitors. “A lot of people messaged me, going, ‘Love the tartan trousers. Would you be able to give me any tips on where I could get a cheaper pair from?’” Easy, she says: “You can find versions everywhere.” Some years, McKeefry explains, Winkleman has worn “£23.99 leggings from Amazon, or something from Decathlon, and we've mixed it in with Chanel.” The pair’s friendship goes back years. Back in 2021, McKeefry was hired to work with Winkleman for the first season of The Traitors on the BBC. “I hadn't seen the location, the castle,” she says. “I didn't really understand what they meant by breakfast, because I hadn't seen the show at all. Everyone was just working it out at the time.” That was four years ago. “I sent Claudia [to Scotland] with one jacket, which was an old Barbour jacket of mine that had a hood. And I was just like, ‘Take that in case it rains.’ When I say it's so different now: now, we've got a whole wet weather gear section.” That isn’t the only change. These days, McKeefry has to pull together 36 looks per season, each of which involves several pieces: according to McKeefry, there’s at least five times that amount of clothing at the fitting too. “We travel in convoy. It's like a military operation, because we're dealing with big, heavy items, like the coat from Yves Saint Laurent that was in the last series, and big heavy tweed, full length coats.” At least Winkleman is an enthusiastic collaborator — the pair’s close relationship is what fuels some of the series’ most out-there looks. “We're talking about next series already: we're always sending each other things on Instagram,” McKeefry says. “Sometimes it's like, ‘This would be really cool.’ Other times it's just outrageous stuff, and then Claude will just send me some Rick Owens creation that's completely out there, and she'll just go, ‘Breakfast?’” “She's got such a good sense of style. Also, Claude is not precious, so if we try something and it's not working, there's no big dissection of why it didn't work, I literally just go, ‘Chuck it out the window!’ and then we go on to the next thing.” What are her hero pieces for people wanting to buy a bit of that Traitors glamour for themselves? Despite McKeefry’s penchant for “big Wellington boots and wax jackets and tweeds and knits” – often from big brands like Barbour and Hunter - they’re pleasingly high street. “I love the Cos polo necks that I layer up. I've used those over the seasons,” she says. “Spanx leggings as well: they’re really useful, just for warmth. I like Holland and Cooper jeans, because they've got a nice jumper-y feel to them, you know.” McKeefry also did a “lot of layering” in the first series. She cites ME+EM’s vests “that you could wear with Victoriana necklines” and frilly wrist warmers that you could put under a jumper and gave “the illusion that you were wearing a pretty Victoriana shirt” as huge inspiration for Winkleman’s early looks. “We could put those under really nice thin knits from places like Johnstons of Elgin or Bruar. And then, do a tweed jacket from maybe Dubarry on the top of that.” In fact, Johnstons of Elgin happens to be the place that McKeefry sourced the outrageously large turtleneck that Winkleman wore in season two. “I liked it with the neck stood up because it was a chunky enough knit for it to stand up on its own. I literally thought nothing more of it. And then it became this huge thing, which was brilliant.” As winter encroaches, she also recommends investing “in a good jacket.” That means a good military piece: “a really strong overcoat, or a pea coat; something that's got a bit of structure to it, that you're gonna get a lot of wear out of. Even if you're wearing jeans and trainers, you know, don't be afraid to mix it with a super smart jacket.” Fortunately for us, high street brands are starting to get in on the Traitors action, too. As McKeefry puts it, “I walk through Zara and I'm just like, Traitors, Traitors, Traitors: everything is Traitors.” What does that mean? “It's like the big military coat, it's the chunky boots, it's the knitwear, it's the Argyle, it's taking some of the Heritage look. It's the romantic shirts.” For those looking, Zara is also a good place to shop for coats. “There's going to be a Zara coat in this series. Normally with coats, I would tend to stick with the higher end of the high street, like Whistles, where you can really rely on that tailoring. But actually, Zara, and places like Marks & Spencer, you will find really, really good tailoring among the collections.” Though she can’t share any more information about the other looks being debuted this season, McKeefry has plans for the future: ideally, introducing themes. “I would love to explore quite a romantic vision,” she says. “I'll see what the feedback from this season is, but I think there's so much we can explore with it. And you've got all these heritage pieces to rely on, so you will always have that. The starting point is [always] very authentic: the landscape, the castle.” The Celebrity Traitors is streaming now on BBC One
