Celia Imrie Channels Queen Elizabeth II At The Fashion Awards

Last night, the Royal Albert Hall played host to the biggest and brightest names in fashion, as the style set flocked to the capital for the 2025 edition of The Fashion Awards. The red carpet, naturally, was flooded with designers, models and muses – as well as plenty of A-listers from the worlds of TV, film, music and more. 

And as is to be expected from such a high profile event, there were plenty of glamorous outfits on show – but none stood out quite like a certain Faithful’s. Stepping out in a bespoke Gieves & Hawkes suit and cloak, Celia Imrie lived up to her icon status in an all-red ensemble inspired by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Here’s everything you need to know about the look. 

Celia Imrie Cloaks Up For The Fashion Awards 2025

It’s not just the Traitors who can pull off a cloak, it seems. Actress (and certified national treasure) Celia Imrie made her Fashion Awards debut last night, joining the ranks of London’s style set in a sharply tailored look straight from Savile Row.

Striding onto the red (or rather, blue) carpet, the actress indulged in a dramatic entrance: flicking open her floor-length opera cloak to reveal a matching three-piece suit underneath. A bespoke creation by Gieves & Hawkes, the red velvet cloak and scarlet suit was one of most memorable – and impactful – looks of the night.

The Fashion Awards 2025 (c) Lily Craigen, British Fashion Council

‘We were really lucky to work with Celia,’ Davide Taub, Head Cutter at Gieves & Hawkes, told C&TH. ‘We were really thinking about the kind of person who would align with us and how we see bespoke tailoring – we wanted to collaborate with someone who not just understood it, but really embraced it. Celia really made a lot of sense; her admiration for heritage, the excitement in how she dresses and her personality. People from all walks of life can resonate with seeing her in a tailored garment.’

Unlike ready-to-wear garments, the bespoke process involves creating an item of clothing from scratch – and in collaboration with the person who will be wearing it. ‘Designing bespoke is all about having conversations,’ explained Taub. ‘It’s actually through conversation – collaboration – that the best design comes.’

Taub met with the actress for several fittings in the lead up to the Fashion Awards. Looking back fondly on the experience, he highlighted how Imrie ‘came down into the workshop – she wanted to meet the tailor that was going to make her jacket, her trousers – and I showed her the pattern that we made of her body shape, that we cut the cloth from. She found that really fascinating, I think.’

And Imrie herself confirmed the feeling: ‘I was mesmerised by the painstaking detail of not only the precision measuring of the experts – led by Davide Taub and his undercutter Oliver Reeves – but also by the miraculous hand stitching of the entirety of each garment,’ said the actress. ‘I was so excited to be shown the magical workshop beneath the store at no.1 Savile Row. The atmosphere was calm yet energetic.’

(c) Geives & Hawkes

Another factor that drew the actress to Gieves & Hawkes was its longstanding naval and military heritage. The label was formed from two famous military tailors – Gieves, founded in 1785 and Hawkes, founded in 1771 – with the former earning the title of supplier to the British Royal Navy and Hawkes of the British Army. 

‘I think Celia was also drawn to how we respond to our heritage in a modern way,’ mused Taub. ‘We approach heritage in a way that doesn’t mean we’re just making military uniforms. It’s not fancy dress. It’s more a case of learning how these designs were made in the past, what was functional and elegant for them, and how we can learn from them. I think that design process was the first spark of interest.’

But it was one very famous piece of military regalia crafted by the tailors at Gieves & Hawkes that set the tone for Imrie’s outfit: a boat cloak fashioned for a young Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation day. ‘There’s a very famous photograph by Cecil Beaton, of the Queen on that day,’ noted Taub. ‘It looks beautiful, it looks elegant, but ultimately, it’s a very simple, functional garment that comes from the Royal Navy. It was a gift from the Royal Admiralty to Queen Elizabeth II. And that piece gave us our starting point.’

Queen Elizabeth II in the Gieves & Hawkes cloak

From there, the cutters at Gieves & Hawkes were able to tailor the cloak to the occasion and client – in this case Imrie – tweaking the look to give it enough drama to suit an event like The Fashion Awards. ‘The cloak we made is more on the elegant side – it’s very long, it’s got a train – but there’s some little aspects which do have a nod to the military,’ Taub explained. ‘There are two splits through the sides so Celia can get her hands out and actually manoeuvre the cloak, and I was a bit more dramatic with the stand and fall collar, because I knew it would be worn on a red carpet.’

And for the final bit of oomph? ‘We decided quite early on in our conversations that the look would be red. Just red,’ recounted Taub. ‘I thought that was quite a powerful statement. 

‘There are lots of elements to the outfit,’ he continued. ‘It’s a three piece suit; you’ve got the jacket, the waistcoat, trousers, and then you’ve got the cloak – and, of course, shoes. All those elements also had such strong silhouettes, so it made sense to take a more straightforward approach with the colour blocking.’

(c) Geives & Hawkes

It was this design note that helped push a classic military cloak into the realm of high fashion. But for Taub, the reward came from Imrie herself. ‘It was quite an emotional experience to make something and see someone actually transform,’ he recounted. ‘In those fittings we could see a shift in the way Celia stood, the way she looked at herself, the way she moved. That’s one of the rewards of creating something unique for any customer – but with someone as expressive as Cecilia, that was particularly special.

‘People don’t typically connect Savile Row with womenswear,’ he added. ‘It’s become more common in recent years for tailors to introduce women’s collections, but I don’t want what we’re doing to be seen as jumping on the bandwagon. Personally, I’ve been cutting for women for 20 years, and Gieves & Hawkes has many female customers. And while we’ve not deliberately hid that we work with women, we’ve heard our customers actually like keeping us as their little secret.’

But, with Imrie’s red carpet appearance still fresh in our minds, it seems the secret is out. ‘I feel very humbled to be fitted with such a luxurious piece,’ said the actress of the final look. ‘It is a mighty honour to have such a gift from the geniuses at Gieves & Hawkes.’

For bespoke enquiries, visit gievesandhawkes.com