Cover girls: Celebrating English style down the ages

Naomi Campbell in the Burberry Festive Campaign shot by Mario Testino

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FOR DECADES they have stood as beacons for style-conscious women everywhere, and at times their image has been almost inseparable from that of Britain itself.

Some were models, most not. But all embodied a certain Englishness the rest of the world could envy, no matter what they thought of England itself.

Perhaps it was Elizabeth Taylor who started it, radiating an early Fifties Hollywood-made glamour back to the austerity-ridden shores of her homeland.

But it has taken until now for someone to quantify what – and more importantly, who – makes a British style goddess.

Harper’s Bazaar magazine, the self-styled resource for “women who are the first to buy the best”, has celebrated its 150th anniversary by compiling a list of the world’s 150 most fashionable and stylish women.

Flying the union flag are the Duchess of Cambridge, Naomi Campbell, Amal Clooney and the singer Adele.

The list takes in only those at height of their fame, and so excludes such quintessential English roses as Princess Diana, and more idiosyncratic idols like Margaret Thatcher, who never underestimated the power of a good handbag.

Yorkshire can take some credit for the Duchess of Cambridge’s distinctive look: her signature Burberry trench coat, her most-worn piece in her courting days, was turned out at the company’s factory in Castleford, from fabric milled up the road in Cross Hills, near Keighley.

Harper’s Bazaar’s editor-in-chief, Glenda Bailey, said editors of the magazine’s 32 editions around the world had contributed to the style list, and their selections were “more or less the same”.

As well as the British standard bearers, they included Mrs Obama and the 16-year-old American singer Willow Smith, daughter of