Keira Knightley’s iconic winter outfits in Black Doves: Shop the looks for less

Keira Knightley is my new girl crush after watching her play Helen Webb on Black Doves, the sharp, action-filled spy story set in London, also starring the incredible Ben Whishaw. 

Of course, it’s not all spy antics, it’s also a story of friendship and sacrifice. It’s also a lesson in how to dress in a low-key quiet luxury fashion. Helen Webb is a quick-witted, down to earth, dedicated wife and mother (oh, and a professional spy) but she’s also a savvy dresser, judging by her wardrobe.

Ian Fulcher, the show’s head fashion stylist, revealed on Instagram that the wardrobe was all hand made. “We started prep on a Christmas show in July,” he said on an Instagram post. “This meant limited shopping options and combined with controlling the colour palette of the show so much, making from scratch allowed me more freedom.” 

He continued: “Throughout the series we kept all the colours to warm seasonal shades and limited the use of ‘cold colours’ and whites to an accent shade. Helen needed to look stylish and effortless, but also exude a steely subtle strength, playing into the duality of her role.”

Keira Knightley’s tobacco brown coat

Ian revealed that finding the ‘perfect’ shade of tobacco for her coat took a few weeks to source, as “the fabrics options were all either too brown, too orange, the cashmere too furry or too ‘flat’ and lifeless.”

Luckily, Ian hired Clinton Lotter, the costume cutter, who took to Instagram to share his secrets! He said in a post: “I loved creating these tobacco coats for Black Doves. As Ian Fulcher is a stickler for detail, and has a Hawkeye for things that are not quite right, we ended up adding a hand stitched detail on all the seams in a thicker yarn. A machine stitch just wasn’t doing the trick. I had to double block fuse the entire coat to give it the weight and hang that we were after. Ended up making about 3 of these, but I really did love it.”

© Instagram

Many websites suggest that the inspiration for the tobacco coat was from the Max Mara belted wool coat in Tobacco. The designer coat might well be out of your budget, but I’m a pro at finding lookalikes for less money. I’ve found a gorgeous brown tobacco belted coat from COS for a fraction of the cost.   

Keira Knightley’s warm ginger turtleneck 

© Netflix

We often see Keira wearing a House of Bruar cashmere roll neck in the shade Warm Ginger. There’s a 36% saving on the knit right now, costing just £125 in the winter sale. I love this and it went superbly with Keira’s colouring. If you’re looking to copy the cashmere but it’s out of budget, how about the lambswool version instead? 

Keira Knightley’s yellow scarf 

© Netflix

As the show’s design team made all the pieces from scratch, I’m keen to find the perfect lookalikes, and one fellow HELLO! colleague has tasked me with finding the perfect yellow scarf as seen on Keira Knightley. In her words, she said to me: “I didn’t even know I need a yellow mustard scarf, but Keira rocks it!” 

Well, Katy! I have the perfect scarf for you – this mustard yellow supersoft scarf from ASOS, costing just £12.99. 

Keira Knightley’s burgundy skirt and satin shirt party outfit

© Netflix

This outfit has had a lot of press since the show aired – probably because it was the perfect inspiration for Christmas Day look, and it was also the colour of the season – burgundy! 

Talking about this particular outfit, Ian said: “The block burgundy outfit I felt perfectly illustrated [her character], with all the textures and sheens in her silk blouse, pleather maxi shirt and matching suede belt acting as armour when one moment hosting a Christmas party and then 10 minutes protecting herself with a flick knife!”

© Instagram

Clinton added: When Ian suggested a Sunray pleated pleather skirt, I wondered if if it could be heatset, and work out ok. Obviously the pleating came back beautifully done, and I set about to make the skirts. A gorgeous end result in my opinion.” 

Amazon has a lovely burgundy pleated skirt, if you’re after the look for less. It won’t be as luxe as Keira’s version but it’ll certainly look the part. For the perfect satin shirt, I’m thinking this Amazon version could work as well, and it only costs £36.