In the vast landscape of 21st century fashion, with glittering brands, designers and makers in every direction, offering up a bonanza from haute couture gowns in furls of chiffon to AI styling tools, it’s hard to locate a savannah, a place where opportunity can grow.  Yet in the fifteen years since launching her eponymous business, Jade Holland Cooper has cultivated a thing of rarity – a new English heritage brand that revives sartorial traditions for contemporary taste with verve and grace. “I think to be successful; you have to understand what is the white space that you are filling? What is that gap? What is that point of difference?” explains Jade, CEO and Managing director of her independent business.  But what goes into a building a business in a market overflowing with ‘stuff’ and bursting at the seams with propositions? How does a ‘lifestyle’ take shape and penetrate the status quo? How has Jade Holland Cooper made it thus far? And who are the behind-the-scenes experts that allow the magic to happen?

The cast and crew, on location on the 250-acre Dowdeswell estate, offer up one side of the ‘dream,’ even through blustering winds and torrential showers. This is the idyll remixed with 52-year-old American model Beri Smither, and Guinea Bissau born, Portugal raised male model Fernando Cabral, in a cast that also includes Jade herself. Photographer, L.A. dwelling Justin Campbell, at creative brand agency Tings Studio is behind the camera lens, while agency co-founder Michael Flutie masterminds the intricate three-day production spanning campaign, video interviews and film. Meanwhile, Charlotte Stockdale and Katie Lyall co directors of Chaos Fashion are the talents behind the styling interpreting Holland Cooper’s latest AW collection for the ensemble cast of characters.   

There are surreal blink twice moments when you are not quite sure where reality ends and the fantasy starts. But no, it is real, as real as the British made tweed that has been woven at a mill on the Scottish borders and as real as Zahir, the senior pattern cutter, the father and son team Zimbo and Aran who manufacture the garms outside London, and as real as Jade’s mum and dad who have all been invited to take part in this 360 campaign. Every player in this diverse cast tells their part in the Holland Cooper story shining a light on this complex eco system of experts. This slice of country life is quite something. No slouches here; it is full on immersion. 

The backbone of the brand is tailoring in the shape of elegant chalk stripe suits, long lean tweed trench coats, natty waistcoats and pleat front trousers, and it is made in Britain with fabrics sourced from specialist mills and the clothes made in small family-owned factories. In 2024, with U.K. manufacturing hammered by competitors in Eastern Europe and Asia, that is some feat.  Such is the demand, Jade was recently able to invest in a factory set up by father and son duo, Zimbo and Aran (long standing partners) ensuring quality remains high, and turnaround from pattern to finished product is slick and fast. 

Seated in the library at Dowdeswell Court, Jade is the picture of a new dynamic British country life. She is a pin up for her effortless style but more importantly, for her female business leader smarts that sees her all over everything – design, manufacturing, retail, ecommerce, brand marketing – and all the time. The catalyst is always the customer. “I was looking at the whole woman and saying, I want to dress her. I want to dress me. I want to only wear clothes that I'm making and that then created a lifestyle brand because whether I was riding, whether I was skiing, whether I was swimming, whether I was at the country event, I wanted to wear my own product,” says Jade who talks with precision and at speed. 

Campaign model, Oregon born New York dwelling Beri Smithers, lives a life far removed from the Cotswolds dream.  Yet having worked with visionary fashion directors and lensmen Peter Lindbergh and Herb Ritts included, Smither’s knows the artistry of image making as well as the cut of a good jacket. “What is the American understanding of the British aesthetic? We think quality and we think tweed, which I've been wearing for the last 48 hours, and I'm loving it because we've been shooting in the rain and wind. At one point, I said to Jade ‘I feel so bad. This beautiful jacket is dragging on the muddy ground.’ She's like, “it's what it's made for!’  I don't want to use the word armour because it's so much more beautiful than that, but it can hold up against the elements. Fundamentally this take on the British aesthetic, is something that will withstand the test of time and with classy, beautiful lines, that are neither too stuffy or conservative, but feel modern,” adds Smithers commending the ‘not outrageous’ price points.

Is talent a question of nature or nurture? The answer is probably both. DNA plays a part but so too does an environment.  Jade’s capacity to absorb lessons from the world around her was remarkable. “She’s a sponge, show her something once and she gets it whether that’s baking, sewing or planting a shrubbery,” smiles Miranda Holland Cooper, Jade’s mother, who bought a mini-Stockman so that Jade could start making her own toiles. Holland Cooper and her daughter both share a photographic memory.

Dad, a sanguine fellow, has other insights following an award-winning career in arable farming. “Like her mother, Jade has this innate skill of looking at 40 garments and saying those two will sell. And unless you can do that quickly and without effort, you are probably never going to succeed. There are plenty of good designers, there are plenty of people who will work 24 hours a day, and there are many people who are good at figures, but you have to bring it all together and Jade has this gift. It is not a ‘soft’ job,” says Cooper.

Catapult forward fifteen years, from the hard slog of selling capsule collections at county horse shows, the dualities of country and town life, innovation and classicism, making and selling, accounting and image making have coalesced in Holland Cooper. Jade runs its top and bottom line in unison.  “It’s important for me to do everything to the best possible standard. People who really know me, still see a shy person who loves being in the chicken run and deadheading roses. But the innate desire and the need for that injection of euphoria, which comes from commercial success, that moment when you've pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone and delivered, is something I have to have.” she says.  

As the final frames are wrapped for this multimedia campaign, and the tweeds, umbrellas, capes and Wellington boots are brushed down and packed up, Jade now in jodhpurs, a hacking jacket and flat cap is onto the next. There’s the new HQ to oversee, hundreds of new products to green light. “This campaign is about putting us on the map within the industry. I wanted to put my story, the brand story on the map to showcase what we're doing. And also, perhaps to help young people that are coming into the industry thinking, how do you do that? Here is a little bit of my story,” smiles Jade.