A Winter’s Tale at Swinton
Behind the Scenes of our Autumn Winter 2025 Shoot
There are some places that take your breath away before you’ve even had the chance to draw it in properly. Swinton Estate is one of them. Twenty thousand acres of Yorkshire beauty stretch from the River Ure up to the edge of the Dales, rolling from farmland to forestry to wild, wind-whipped moorland. A place of grand history, still shaped and cared for by the Cunliffe-Lister family, who have called it home since the 1880s.
It was here, in the last days of November, that we set our scene for the Toggi Autumn Winter 2025 campaign. For us, there could hardly have been a more fitting location. Swinton is set in the heart of North Yorkshire, and being there felt like a homecoming. Toggi was born in Yorkshire, and as we celebrate our roots with a collection we are deeply proud of, returning to Swinton was as symbolic as it was spectacular.
Setting the Stage
The team made Swinton Park Hotel our base for the shoot. With its grand rooms, glittering Christmas decorations and fires that never seemed to go out, it made us feel like characters in a Jane Austen novel. Each evening ended at The Terrace Restaurant and Bar with long suppers that ran late, full of chatter and the occasional debate over pudding (the food variety, not the canine one).
From our windows we could see deer grazing quietly across the lake. A view so still and extraordinary it reminded us just how lucky we were to be working in such a setting.
The Cast
Our models were the ever-elegant Sienna Cochrane and Digby Edgely, who many will know from Made in Chelsea, though he looked perfectly at home in our countryside kit. Both brought the new collection to life with effortless warmth. Alongside them was Sienna’s Toy Poodle, Pudding, who was never seen without her caramel roll-neck sweater and very nearly stole the show.
We also welcomed guest spaniels Gwen and Bella, who starred in the campaign hero shot. The pair proved consummate professionals, even when confronted with the sight of a hundred-strong herd of deer on the estate grounds. They held their ground beautifully instead of tearing off in pursuit, which impressed us as much as any human modelling could.
A gleaming Land Rover Defender, kindly loaned by friends of the crew, completed the picture. It looked every bit as at home against the castle as it did on the moorland tracks.
Weathering the Weather
Yorkshire, of course, had its own ideas. The forecast teased snow, which caused a few nervous early wake-ups from the team. A blanket of white would have been beautiful, but less than practical for a campaign intended to run from August to March. In the end, the flurries came and went without settling, leaving us with piercing blue skies and a chill that hovered stubbornly between minus two and two degrees.
Usually, in early autumn or even late spring shoots, we find ourselves creating autumnal scenes with props and styling. At Swinton, nature did the work for us. The frosted leaves, crisp air and low winter light delivered autumn and winter in their purest form.
It was the kind of cold that makes you grateful for proper kit. Our Head of Marketing, Liv, trialled a sample of the new heavier-weight Fieldstone Coat and can confirm it did the job admirably, even as the rest of us relied on hot water bottles, endless cups of tea and steaming bowls of soup and sandwiches to keep spirits high.
A Moment to Remember
On the first afternoon, we drove up to the moorland as the sun was setting. In November, that meant around four o’clock. The air was sharp, the ground frozen, and the sky an astonishing wash of pink and purple. As Sienna and Digby walked towards the camera, framed against the fading light, a barn owl flew overhead. For a few seconds it glided above us before plunging down, no doubt having spotted its supper. In the dying sunlight, the owl itself seemed tinged pink, as if the landscape had painted it. It was one of those rare moments where everything falls into place, where the story you are trying to tell suddenly tells itself.
Shooting at Swinton was not simply about a backdrop. It was about grounding our Autumn Winter 2025 collection in the kind of environment it was designed for. These are clothes made to stand up to biting winds, to carry you from town to field, and to feel as timeless as the landscape they were photographed in.
As we packed away after two days of frostbitten fingers, laughter and more than one outtake thanks to Pudding, Gwen and Bella, we felt proud. Proud of the collection, proud of the team, and proud to be home.
If you are tempted to experience it for yourself, we highly recommend Swinton Estate for a weekend getaway or longer. You can discover more about the estate, hotel and the wealth of activities they offer, from spa retreats and walking to clay pigeon shooting and fly fishing, at swintonestate.com.
What our team wore
On set at Swinton Estate
