White Company unveils “new clothing vision”

In a season with a big focus on rebranding, The White Company is marking its 30th year with the launch of a “new clothing vision” that has a big focus on quality, comfort-with-style and what feels like a much stronger voice for fashion within the overall brand product mix.

Under Sheila McKain, a trained sculptor and former designer at Donna Karan and Oscar de la Renta, the team has drawn on the archives of The White Company’s founder, Chrissie Rucker, to create “a modern collection that brings a sense of luxury, ease and confidence to the everyday”.

Launching for the cold weather season, the company said that McKain “looked to the old English word, apricity – describing the warmth of the sun in winter – to inform a palette of whites and ecrus, complimented by rich earth tones, and a beautifully considered edit of tactile fabrics and cocooning shapes that offer comfort and elegance”.

There’s outerwear with fluid, oversized proportions such as a throw-over soft poncho in wool, a pared-back take on the classic khaki parka, a down-filled puffa, an oversized leather jacket and an edit of cosy short coats in wool and shearling.

Tactile knitwear “brings a sense of luxury to dressing,” we’re told, with cashmere “elevated to the finest quality”. Soft cable knits, knitted polo shirts, T-shirts and slouchy hoodies are also on the menu.

And there’s tailoring that’s “relaxed, with fluid and oversized trouser fits in all-Italian wool blends”. Meanwhile, denim has been reinvented to include slouchy carpenter, carrot and straight styles in a new selvedge denim.

A new focus on accessories also “brings a contemporary feel to bags that are both useful and beautiful to the touch, in slouchy suede and snuggly shearling”. 

The revamp was flagged back in May when the the brand named fashion-first PR agency Virginia & Partners to “oversee the strategy and realisation” of the womenswear relaunch. 

And as mentioned, it comes at a time when a number of brands are upping their game with new approaches. Only this week Vivere unveiled its own rebrand. And H&M Group’s & Other Stories has revealed its “new brand spirit” under new creative chief Jonathan Saunders.