Russell & Bromley Is Back – Here’s What To Expect From The Brand New Collection

Russell & Bromley is back – and in a big way. A hallmark of the British high street, the brand has always been synonymous with premium footwear. But where previous collections may have leant into the hush-hush of quiet luxury, this season is loud and energetic. It’s a fresh take on what makes the brand so special for Brits.

‘We’re not having a revolution, we’re having an evolution,’ Daniel Beardsworth-Shaw, the brand’s new Creative Director, tells C&TH. ‘It’s not that we’re forgetting the past – it’s something that’s going to continually inform us – but I think it’s more about us using it to propel ourselves forward. And for me, it’s about reconfirming that we’re the authority in British fashion footwear. That’s who we are, that’s what we’ve been this whole time.’

Below, Daniel runs us through his journey with Russell & Bromley, what to expect from the AW25 collection (his first with the brand), plus what it was like to bring actress Billie Piper on board as the face of the campaign.

Daniel Beardsworth-Shaw On Russell & Bromley’s AW25 Collection

Hi Daniel, thanks for joining us. Tell us what your journey with Russell & Bromley has been like so far.

The journey has been incredible. I joined just over a year ago, and it’s been great. The moment I got the call to come and meet the Bromleys, I had this weird feeling that it would work. And thankfully it did. They’re so wonderful, and they’re so supportive.

It’s also been incredibly eye opening to look through the 145-year history of this brand. There have been so many wonderful moments, products, stores and campaigns over the decades – just really incredible content. Russell & Bromley has a printed archive that dates back to the 1900s, and it was really amazing and immense at points.

The way that this brand has projected itself over the years has given me an amazing bedrock to work from and move forward. I always use the phrase of ‘using the past to inform the future,’ and I think that’s so important with Russell & Bromley. Maybe that’s where the support comes from with the family, because we’re not having a revolution, we’re having an evolution. We’re really pulling from our past to figure out what we’re going to do next.

So the journey has been incredible. It’s been kind of crazy, but it’s not worth doing if it’s not a bit mad and busy at times.

What was it like coming to a brand with such a rich legacy on the British high street?

I don’t think I was prepared for the storytelling, and the fact that everyone has a memory of this brand. Having worked for a heritage brand in the past, like Hunter, you have an understanding of the people that have love for the product. But when I meet people within the world of Russell & Bromley, it’s a lot more emotional – and that’s been quite surprising.

The history of this brand runs deep in a lot of people’s veins, in British culture and our society. We’ve grown up seeing Russell & Bromley on our high streets; we have this impression of the brand as the pinnacle of footwear, somewhere where you want to go and purchase your first loafer or boot. And I feel like that’s something that stays today.

Do you have a Russell & Bromley story of your own?

I do! I was a fashion assistant in the Red magazine office, and I used to have come down to Russell & Bromley’s Bond Street store every morning to pick up boots for the photo shoots. And I used to love it. I used to run down to Bond Street, go into Russell & Bromley before it opened, select the boots and take them back to the fashion wardrobe. There was so much excitement.

Can you talk us through the design process of the AW25 collection?

For me, every design starts with a concept, and I always like to root it in something that either has a cultural relevancy or has something that maybe I’ve connected to – something that I’m feeling at that time. The Russell & Bromley AW25 collection was a bit of both, and a lot of it comes down to the brand’s archive.

I spent my first couple of months with Russell & Bromley going through the archive, and I saw how the brand had responded to so many fashion movements throughout its lifetime. It got me thinking about the fashion landscape of Britain and the UK in general, and how amazing it is; an incredible, tiny nation that is so rich in creativity. Historically, we’ve really had a huge sway on the trajectory of fashion.

I wanted to narrow down that impact into three movements I felt really moved the needle in fashion: the mods, the punks and the club kids. Without those three movements, fashion in the UK would look totally different. So they were the starting point for this season’s concept, which we call Rebellious Traditions.

I also love the idea that Russell & Bromley, from what I’ve seen in the archive, has been rebellious in its own way. The strap lines from the ’80s were so tongue in cheek and hilarious. We’ve never taken ourselves too seriously, but we’ve always followed our own path – we’ve naturally been quite rebellious. So that was the catalyst of the collection.

But what’s been special about this collection is that we’ve never really designed a collection fully in-house before. We spent a lot of time trying to understand what our rules are around design and our language. I took our most iconic shoe, our women’s Chester Loafer, as a bit of a case study. It’s been around for 60 years, so it felt like a good starting point. I extracted our key elements of the design – the counter line, the mock stitch, the round detail, the fan fringing, the tassel, the top collar stitch detail, and the box stitch on the back. And those pieces started to formulate a language that we wanted to create within our product.

But it’s not the only style from the archive we referenced. Our new heel collection is an archive heel reference – we specifically looked at the vamps we used to create in the 80s – and our Haymoor has this gorgeous wedge detail which is directly from the archive.

We took all of those things and put them into sort of a melting pot of design, layered with the concept of mod and punk and club kids. And I’m really proud of what we’ve ended up with.

Why was the brand’s history such an important resource for you?

When you’re 145 years old, it’s hard not to. It’s so easy to walk into a brand and kind of think you’re going to start fresh, but I think that’s often the wrong choice. Often the right choice is to look backwards. Fashion is cyclical; we always look back to look forward, and we have constantly referred to the past to inform what we’re doing.

This brand’s heritage is something that should never be ignored: it’s so rich, such a part of British culture, so to ignore it felt silly. History plays a huge part in everything we do – informs every decision we make moving forward. These are things that tell us how to move forward, so it felt necessary, which I think is quite a nice way to look at it. Rather than it being like a chore to look back, it felt like an exciting privilege to look back.

What went on your mood board?

A lot of Leigh Bowery. He’s someone I really loved for a long time. One thing I always come back to is the image of Leigh with his hands on his head, covered in sequins. When I saw that, I was like, ‘I really just need a sequin mule.’ Which is what we ended up with. So some imagery ends up translating directly into product, while some is a bit more thematic or abstract.

Were there any surprising stories you came across in your research?

My favourite one is from 1940s when we designed an entire collection from crocodile print. Which I think is bold. It was really intentional, fun and exciting.

Some of the brands we used to stock was surprising too actually. We stocked Loewe in the ’40s, we were one of the first stockists of Christian Dior nylons in the ’20s and ’30s. I didn’t really think that we would have had such big names in our stores, but we did. It’s really interesting, and being a bridge to a luxury brand really confirms our own roots in the luxury space. It makes us feel a bit more confident in that position we have.

Can you run us through some highlights from the AW25 collection?

I will start with the Haymoor. It has a real response to all three movements: there’s an ’80s heel from the archive, that ’60s shaft and that ’70s take on our design language, which is sort of punky. This is actually an exploded version of our visual language, taken to the nth degree. It really showcases all three movements in a really beautiful modern boot.

We also have our Chester, which has that little lining detail side here, the box stitch and the fringing of the tassel.

The Ravensmoor has this really gorgeous ’60s heel, and that comes across in a boot version as well.

I also really love the pearl piece. There’s been a bit of an explosion of pearl, and it comes up in a few styles this season – including a slingback from the Carden family.

Carden is a new family for us; it has a loafer, a slingback, a ballerina, a lace-up and a boot. It’s our biggest family of the season. We wanted to introduce a new loafer – which feels a bit odd, as we know we have so many. We have out Chester loafer, our Dartmoor, our Dalston – they all do a specific thing. But this is more of an elevated loafer. When we got the first prototype in we loved it so much we decided to sculpt it into other shapes.

I’m really loving our house check this season; the pattern is beautiful. We’ve put it on a few styles, like our Carden Slingback.

And there’s the Birchwood Cowboy Boot, which Billie Piper wears in our new campaign. The drawing for this actually came straight from the archive, and we’re not sure it ever went into production – but it made sense to make it now.

The Dalton Boot is also the boot from the campaign – the one that Billie lives in and makes into a Cobblers.

We’ve also given Men’s a big overhaul. We have the Bellagio family, which is a bit like Carden with the chiselled toe, and builds on the classic Oxford. This style is the most expensive way to make a shoe, the most premium way – and we wanted to bring back our premium level of menswear. Men’s in general just has a bit more energy to it than previous collections this time around.

What’s going on with bags this season?

We didn’t necessarily have of a USP for bags, so previously we would have sold a lot of ‘match backs’ – matching shoes and clutch bags. That was a huge part of our business. This time around, we’re thinking about the bag range in its entirety, on its own, with its own merit, and with its own reasons to be there. I think we have focused too long on them being just a companion to the footwear.

We have this counter line bag, which has a gorgeous reference to the Chester counter. This comes in a bowling style with a really gorgeous crossbody and Sam Browne strap.

One of my favourite styles this season is actually a work bag. It has a large profile with a croc handle and two front zip pockets. I felt like we had work shoes but we didn’t have work bags, which felt a bit odd, so I wanted to introduce a work bag – the most gorgeous work bag you could think of. It has a lovely structure to it, and it feels really premium.

Let’s talk about the campaign – what’s the story?

I always start with the creative direction for the overarching collection, and that then gets filtered down into a campaign. And I had this exciting idea to reference a children’s book, the story of the woman who lived in the shoe. I loved this idea of creating a world within the kind of premise of cobblers, and then combining the cobblers, the woman in the shoe and the creative direction all together in one melting pot.

We had this idea of a main character that was someone who had lived a life – they had been to so many parties, been part of so many people’s lives and they had so many stories to tell. But they also owned a cobbler, and they were the best cobbler in town. And they wanted to showcase their abilities – which is why they lived in this giant shoe house – but they didn’t want to give up the party life. And they were sort of magnetic. Everyone wanted to go to that person’s party.

The whole idea is that the main character takes her giant shoe house from a cobbler in the day to a night club in the evening. She’s setting up the house, putting posters up, getting the stamps ready to stamp people’s hands as they come in, putting the disco ball up, pouring the drinks, bringing in records – all those things. And you get transported as you go through the door of the boot. First into a dressing room, with these really luxe green and pink textures, and then into this mad nightclub. There’s a really amazing sequence where a big disco ball comes down, and it’s like this giant party.

Billie Piper is the first VIP face of the brand – how does she align with the Russell & Bromley ethos?

When we were coming up with this idea, I instantly thought of Billie. And we joked about it for a while. We were like, ‘oh, yeah, sure, we’ll just get Billie Piper to be our main character.’

But then we had a conversation with her, and she was so excited. And, for us, there was no other option. In the campaign, you can totally see why she is the perfect person. Billie has that infectious, unfiltered approach – a magnetism that is unmatched. When she walks into a room, everyone stops.

She has this confidence in herself, but she also imparts that confidence onto those around her. She makes everyone feel amazing – and that kind of impact is a huge part of our brand. We also want to empower all of our customers to feel amazing. And having a main character that embodied that goal was great.

We’re delighted to have Billie as part of the Russell & Bromley family. She’s our first VIP face of the brand, but I think we’re also her first fashion brand that she’s led a campaign for, so it’s really exciting that we’ve been able to go on that journey together.

This campaign felt like it needed magnitude. It’s such a big moment for us and Billie gives us that little bit extra. The product is fantastic, the campaign is brilliant – and Billie is like the cherry on the cake. She just brings a bit more life and a bit more story to it all. She’s such a great storyteller.

We had an amazing time on set, and I think that shows in the videos and the pictures. The energy was there, and the energy was wonderful.

What were your hopes for this first collection with Russell & Bromley?

My hope for the collection was to put a stake in the ground. We’re setting the groundwork, and it’s all forward from here. It’s not that we’re forgetting the past – it’s something that’s going to continually inform us – but I think it’s more about us using it to propel ourselves forward.

A big part of my hope for this collection was to firmly retake our space in British luxury. For me, it’s about reconfirming that we’re the authority in British fashion footwear. That’s who we are, and that’s what we’ve been this whole time.

A lot of people see us as a retailer – and retail is a huge part of our business – but I want everyone to see us as a brand. I want everyone to see us as Russell & Bromley. Not that brand that you used to shop from, but that brand that you now shop from. It’s about forging forward and being authentically us.

If you could walk in the shoes of someone from fashion history for just one day – who would it be?

It would have to be Raf Simmons. I’m obsessed with him. I find his thought processes and the way he works so fascinating. I think he is a true visionary. If I could be an eighth of him, it would be amazing.

And which Russell & Bromley shoe would they wear?

I would probably say the shoes that I’m wearing, the Wylam Buckle. They’re a really gorgeous moccasin-esque loafer with an ’80s buckle detail. They’re really comfortable. (And they go with everything.)

Anything else in the pipeline, professionally or personally? (That you can tell us about!)

We have our launch event in a few weeks, which will be super fun. And then we also have some store activations, and a brand moment in Covent Garden. Later in the year we also have the launch of partywear, as well as the Fashion Awards.

We’ll also be continuing our relationship with London College of Fashion next year for the third year running, which is amazing.

I can also allude to something a little further away. We have a really exciting project happening in February next year, although I can’t reveal all the details just yet. It’s going to be a really big piece for the brand though, and it’s something I’ve been working on since day one. It’s really wonderful.

Anything else we should know?

We’re live now. The new collection is available online and in stores. We’ll continue to drop newness throughout the season – but I will say that once it’s gone, it’s gone. Once something sells out, it might not be replaced (or at least, it won’t be the exact same style or colourway). We want to give each shoe its moment, so they won’t be hanging around for too long.

But overall, we’re just really excited for everyone to see the collection. It’s really fantastic – and we hope you love it as much as we do.

Discover

You can shop Russell & Bromley’s AW25 collection at russellandbromley.co.uk