With nature as his ultimate muse, jewellery designer Bleue Burnham is determined to infuse others with his passion for the environment through his debut clothing line
- Who is it? Bleue Wickham-Burnham is the UK-based founder and creative director of his eponymous jewellery line, Bleue Burnham, and new clothing collection, Dudley Coppice
- Why do I want it? The designer’s green streak continues with Dudley Coppice – textural garments firmly rooted in the tobacco browns and greens of the great British wilds
- Where can I find it? Dudley Coppice’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection is available through the brand’s own website, and is stocked at Upthere, Fenbai, and the Store X. Its Spring/Summer 2024 collection is set to launch at Outline and The Next Door
Who is it? Saying Bleue Wickham-Burnham has a bit of a green thumb might be an understatement. Ask him about gardening and he comes alive, describing his two gracious apple trees, one bearing crisp Fuji, the other honeyed Golden Delicious; a cherry tree of the sunburst variety; a budding tea plant; and his recent endeavour into growing whirling grapevines, which he hopes will soon culminate in his very own sparkling wine. Wickham-Burnham’s enthusiasm is so delightfully infectious it transcends the binary of Zoom, and by the end of our interview, I’m asking for tips on how to grow plants on my own teeny-tiny balcony in London.
His palpable joy for nature and the environment bled into the very start of his career, where he worked at Oliver Spencer, managing the company’s environmental sustainability. “My love and appreciation for nature is entwined with environmental sustainability. It’s really important that people love nature in order to protect it,” he explains. “When you love something, you care about it. You want to protect it, connect with it, cherish it, spend time with it. So that’s the angle that started my journey and my purpose as an artist; trying to connect people with the natural world through the things that I loved.”
It makes sense, then, that everything the designer does is intended to invoke that same passion in others. His jewellery line, Bleue Burnham, was founded in 2018, and set iself apart from the market with its kaleidoscopic bursts of bejewelled floral figures, made with recycled metals, vintage pearls, and biodegradable packaging. Dudley Coppice is firmly rooted in the same universe, right down to its name. “Dudley is actually my middle name, and I only found out its meaning when researching for this brand. In old British English, its meaning stems from land of the people, and was linked to being a nature lover,” he says, adding that coppicing is a mutually beneficial form of woodland management. “It’s really amazing because everyone kind of benefits: humanity gets the wood, the woodland benefits because it lets sunlight in and fresh new growth to come up.”
Why do I want it? “I just want people to think about the beauty and holistic aspects of nature and how everything is connected. Everything works together,” Wickham-Burnham says. “Sometimes we forget that as humans – it’s almost like we need to see nature as the teacher rather than the subject. It needs to be what you’re learning from rather than what you’re controlling.”
A green and brown checked coat from the new collection is made with deliciously textured Casentino wool, its fuzzy feeling somewhere between well-trodden woodlands and your grandma’s favourite old coat. Cedarwood buttons bring it together, both a novel detail and natural moth repellent. “They’re not necessarily going to be 100% bulletproof in protecting you from moths,” the designer laughs, “but it’s about bringing people into this mindset that there’s a solution for many things within nature.”
Unstructured, deconstructed suiting – sans lapels, fitted seams, and darts – comes in cushiony corduroy, the fabric’s striations recalling bark or tender shoots bursting through the ground. The blazer’s expansive front right panel begs for a bejewelled floral brooch, perhaps even the one created in collaboration with Bleue Burnham. Knobby burl wood serves as its cameo, framed in a halo of oval-cut, lab-created lemon sapphires. Relaxed shirting and logo tees printed with nature-rooted text and medicinal plant prints round the collection out.
Where can I find it? Dudley Coppice’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection is available through the brand’s own website, and is stocked at Upthere, Fenbai, and the Store X. Its Spring/Summer 2024 collection is set to launch at Outline and The Next Door.