Downton Lily lets her hair down as face of Burberry
AS Lady Rose Aldridge, Lily James drew admiring glances for her demure style and decadent dress sense in the refined circles of Downton Abbey.
But Lily adopts a more provocative pose as she prepares to fly the flag for Burberry.
Wearing little more than a sultry pout, the Surrey-born screen star is barely recognisable as the wellborn young lady from the smash hit period drama.
Lily, 27, succeeds models Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne as the face of the iconic British fashion house and, as these pictures show, wears nothing upstairs and very little downstairs.
It is some departure from her time in the stuffy surroundings of the aristocracy in the TV adaptation of War And Peace and a brave move for someone who claims she lacks confidence.
Speaking earlier at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of Year awards, Lily said: “I have such happy, positive memories and a sense of accomplishment about being on Downton. I don’t know if I’d be sitting here if it weren’t for Downton. It would have all been very different.
“I’m quite hard on myself and I’m aware that I’m just learning. I’m never going to be one of those people who is fiercely confident and determined and ambitious. I am all those things but... I’m not.”
“I am what I am. I think if you start trying to pretend to be a certain way to be a movie star, you’re probably going to be unsuccessful. I’m trying to steer away from period stuff for a bit – I want to do something that’s not iconic.”
My Burberry Black, the new fragrance for women, was inspired by the black Heritage Trench Coat. Lily’s first global advertising campaign was shot by Mario Testino, the Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite photographer. Lily, who starred as Cinderella in the £65million Disney fairytale, said: “I love the shots that Mario has taken – he has this amazing ability to make you feel relaxed, confident and seductive all at once. The woman who wears My Burberry Black is confident in her own skin, intense and sensual and I think we really captured this with the campaign.”
The advertising campaign is accompanied by a soundtrack from British singer-songwriter Duffy who sings I Put A Spell On You.