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RITA Ora is a fearless follower of fashion.

While other celebrities walked the Radio 1 Teen Awards red carpet in the usual mix of foxy frock, big shoes and spray tan, Rita pitched up in oversized Burberry shirt and Bermuda shorts, accessorised with flat shoes, white socks and a nedtastic baseball cap.

Rihanna wore the same cap in New York last week, with a matching checked coat hanging off her shoulders.

For those of us still recovering from Danniella Westbrook’s one-woman demolition job of the classic British brand in 2001, these came as a bit of a surprise.

Rita and Rihanna can take their pick from the world’s designers. So why would they chose to appear in public looking as if they were en route to a football match circa 2002?

The man to blame is Russian fashion designer Gosha Rubchinsky. He has collaborated with Burberry to produce a range of menswear that nods back to a time when fawn, red and black was the ned’s uniform of choice.

Down his runway came men in shirts, zip-up jackets and caps in the instantly recognisable checks.

Rita Ora’s outfit – down to the socks – is straight off his catwalk.

Fashion has a short memory and trends come round on what feels like a monthly basis.

But it’s still a shock to see Burberry revive the looks that 15 years ago led to football fans, a former EastEnders star with a cocaine problem and a million market knock-offs almost destroying the 160-year-old brand.

Founded by a 21-year-old draper’s apprentice in Hampshire, Thomas Burberry invented a breathable waterproof fabric, gaberdine.

He opened his first London branch in 1891, selling trench coats.

Gaberdine was worn by officers in the trenches during World War I. It was Amundsen’s outer layer of choice on his expedition to the South Pole in 1911. Shackleton wore it in Antarctica in 1914 and George Mallory climbed Mount Everest in a Burberry in 1924.

The brand have always known the value of a big name. Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, and Scout founder Lord Baden-Powell were both vocal Burberry supporters.

During the 50s, the brand were bought out by Great Universal Stores. In the 70s and 80s, their licensed name and logo began appearing on men and women’s clothes, accessories and sportswear.

Football supporters first noticed Burberry in the 90s. The flashy European sportswear preferred by the first generation of casuals was too thin and flimsy for the terraces in February.

Burberry – alongside Aquascutum,