Cottagecore queen Paula Sutton: ‘I love the very British appreciation of tweed, cashmere and knits’
A funny thing happened last spring. Among the intense and fleeting obsessions of the first lockdown – the sourdough, the banana bread, the couch-to-5km runs – overnight, everyone seemed to develop a fascination with the more photogenic aspects of country life. It was enough to launch “cottagecore”: an aesthetic celebration of rural pursuits involving puff-sleeve dresses, art-directed picnics and Gardeners’ World-worthy kitchen gardens.
For Paula Sutton, cottagecore wasn’t a trend; more a description of how she already lived. Sutton, 52, is a former fashion-magazine bookings editor who moved to rural Norfolk a decade ago in pursuit of a more relaxed pace of life for her husband and three children. In that time, the lifelong urbanite (she was born in Croydon, in south London) discovered a love of gardening, chintzy interiors, vintage furniture, rustic cakes and full-skirted dresses. She shared photos and videos of all of the above through her @hillhousevintage account on Instagram, the videos soundtracked with Andrews Sisters classics and other songs you can’t help but smile along to.
Cashmere vintage collar cardigan in nettle, £345; Harris tweed tapered leg trousers, £245; all Brora
All of her hydrangea-filled trugs, ruffled gingham dresses and tablescaped garden suppers made a most effective antidote to pandemic gloom. People couldn’t get enough of it. Sutton, who went into lockdown with around 120,000 followers, now has nearly half a million. Brands like Marks and Spencer, Sky and Oka queue to work with her.
“I know I’m not the most likely person to be living how I live, dressing how I dress,” she says through a video-call window, gesturing to take in the warmly decorated room in which she sits, her ruffled blouse, the wooden table heaving with garden roses behind her. “It’s not because there aren’t a lot of other black people who do it. It’s just that I’m a visible person. And it’s not contrived – this is actually how I live. All this time I was just doing me. It didn’t occur to me that it would be as interesting to as many people as it seems to be.”
Her latest project was a direct outgrowth of her Instagram account. Some time ago, she wore a decades-old striped cardigan from Brora in a post. “I look after my clothes. If I’ve got a cardigan that’s 20 years old, I will wear it and rewear it as long as it fits me,” she shrugs. Victoria Stapleton, founder of the Scottish cashmere-centric brand, saw the post and invited Sutton to create a collection.
“That was an absolute delight, because I’ve been a Brora customer for so long,” Sutton says, recalling window-shopping the Westbourne Grove shop on her way home from work years ago. “I love the very British appreciation of tweed and cashmere and knits. It’s all very long-lasting but cosy.”
She knew her collection had to feature tweed, and cardigans. An image of a 1920s lady golfer in a cardigan, tweed trousers and tam o’ shanter cap flew into Sutton’s mind. “But a very chic golfer, with a G&T in her hand rather than a golf club.”
She’s done her lady golfer proud with the new collection, available this week. It includes two vintage collared three-quarter-sleeve cashmere cardigans, a Fair Isle waistcoat, Harris tweed trousers (“They’ll last as long as you can do up the button”) and accessories: fingerless gloves and long cashmere marl socks – the kind you don’t mind displaying over the top of a long boot. And a Fair Isle beret, because: “People don’t wear enough hats. We tend to wear them just for bad weather, but in fact they’re a jaunty, happy thing to add to an outfit.”
Supersoft lambswool collared jumper, £195; Cashmere Fair Isle fingerless gloves, £85; Harris Tweed tapered leg trousers, £245; all Brora
“I’m a theatrical dresser. When it comes to outfits, I’ve always got an idea of a character in mind, of who I’m going to be today. It’s another expression of how much I enjoy dressing up.” Today, she’s wearing a blue cardigan over a white blouse with a tiny ruffle, and tweed trousers. She jokes that she’s Lady Chatterley in dresses all summer, and that as soon as the weather chills, she becomes Mellors, the gamekeeper from DH Lawrence’s novel. “I’ve got into my Mellors phase today. It’s gamekeeper-chic.”
Her style has always had a vintage flavour. Sutton recalls turning up to university wearing vintage jodhpurs and a tweed jacket, “for no reason – I thought I was Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet”. Later, as bookings editor at Elle, she was known for her neat cardigans and pencil skirts with heels.
She shelved the heels to move to Norfolk. It wasn’t picture-perfect from the off. “I went through a year or so feeling lost and unsure of myself, and hiding a little bit. I got through that and started seeing the joy in dressing again... And now my life has gone slightly crazy,” she acknowledges. “I’m this middle-aged woman who came to the countryside to slow down and find a new way of living, and in fact, I’ve created this new, vibrant, amazing world that is a lot faster than intended.”
Along with the Brora collection, there’s a book. Hill House Living, out this week, extends Sutton’s recipe for an idyllic rural life into the realm of publishing. Covid means a big launch party isn’t on the cards – that’s fine by Sutton, who doesn’t want to host a party unless everybody can join. “Exclusivity is not what Hill House Vintage stands for. Everyone’s meant to be invited to come and have a cup of tea and a slice of cake.” What ind of cake? “Ooh, it would have to be something a bit more puddingey and pumpkin-spicey with a cream cheese filling. I’d probably also do a nice mug full of pumpkin soup.”
Pumpkins are a thing at Hill House–Sutton has made her annual trip to the pumpkin patch and arranged dozens of decorative gourds around the entrance to her home.
“I’m a big fan of seasonal decorating and seasonal living,” she smiles. “It’s all a cliche, but I love that – I love the comfort of a cliche.” Even more comfortable with a side of cashmere, too.
