Fashion has always had the ability to make a statement, but a new collaboration between some of Britain’s most recognisable creative names is hoping to do considerably more than that.
Photographer Rankin, celebrity tailor Gresham Blake, musician and artist Collette Cooper and actor, artist and musician Lois Winstone have joined forces for God Save The Beagles, a charity T-shirt campaign raising money to help beagles leave animal testing facilities and find loving homes.
It is a brilliant collision of fashion, photography, music, art and activism, built around three words that are almost impossible to ignore.
The T-shirt has been created by Cooper and Winstone, cut by Gresham Blake and photographed by Rankin, with proceeds supporting Beagle Freedom Project UK, which works to remove dogs from testing facilities in the UK and Europe, rehabilitate them and ultimately find them homes.
And behind the striking imagery is a very serious issue.
According to Home Office figures cited by the campaign, 2,646 experimental procedures involving dogs were carried out in Great Britain during 2024, involving 1,651 animals. In a House of Commons debate in April 2025, it was stated that beagles account for around 95 per cent of dogs used in these procedures.
One of the cruel ironies is that beagles are often chosen because of the very characteristics that make them such beloved family pets. They are gentle, trusting and generally good natured.
Beagle Freedom Project works to give some of these animals a life beyond the laboratory. In 2023, the charity brought seven beagles from a facility in Spain into foster care in Kent. Some had reportedly never experienced something as simple as grass despite being 12 years old.
It makes the message emblazoned across this new T-shirt all the more powerful.
God Save The Beagles
The phrase is, of course, deliberately provocative.
Britain has a long history of fashion, music and art being used to challenge the status quo. Jamie Reid famously transformed the words “God Save The Queen” into one of punk’s defining visual statements in the 1970s.
Nearly 50 years later, God Save The Beagles takes that rebellious spirit and directs it towards animals that quite literally have no voice of their own.
And who better to photograph it than Rankin?
Rankin is one of Britain’s most celebrated portrait photographers. His subjects have ranged from David Bowie and Kate Moss to The Rolling Stones and King Charles III. He co-founded Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack and his work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A.
Turning his lens towards this campaign immediately gives the issue the kind of arresting visual identity that can make people stop scrolling and start asking questions.
That is what a successful campaign needs.
Fashion with a purpose
The T-shirt itself comes courtesy of another great British creative, Gresham Blake.
For more than 25 years Blake has been creating his distinctive tailoring from Brighton’s North Laine, alongside his Soho presence, dressing everyone from Nick Cave and Jimmy Page to Steve Coogan, Ray Winstone, Mel C, Norman Cook and Madness.
There is also history between Blake and Collette Cooper. Their previous collaboration, the “Collette suit”, was worn by a string of famous faces including Iris Law and Laura Whitmore.
Cooper herself has an extraordinary creative CV spanning music, acting and art. The Manchester-born performer has been championed by BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music and Jazz FM, and played Janis Joplin in the award-winning Off West End production Tomorrow May Be My Last.
She has also worked with filmmakers including Jane Campion, Michael Winterbottom and Samantha Morton, and is currently recording her latest album with legendary Grammy-winning producer Tony Visconti.
Joining her is Lois Winstone, whose acting credits include Last Orders, The Bill, Beyond The Rave and Game of Thrones. She is also an artist and musician and fronts rock band Lois & The Love, who are currently working on new music.
Together they have created something deceptively simple. A T-shirt with a slogan. But sometimes the simplest campaigns are the ones that travel furthest.
From laboratory to loving home
What makes God Save The Beagles particularly compelling is that buying the shirt isn’t simply about displaying support for a cause.
The money raised supports the practical work involved in removing dogs from testing facilities, rehabilitating animals that may have spent years in institutional environments and preparing them for a completely different life as pets.
Britain banned the testing of cosmetics on animals in 1998, years before the equivalent EU-wide ban came into effect in 2013. But animals, including dogs, continue to be used in scientific procedures.
The Government’s 2025 strategy, Replacing animals in science, set out a long-term ambition to eliminate the use of animals in science except in exceptional circumstances while supporting the development and adoption of alternative methods.
Campaigns such as this one keep the conversation firmly in the public eye.
And there is something particularly clever about using fashion to do it.
We wear our allegiances on our chests all the time, whether that’s a football shirt, a band T-shirt or a designer logo. God Save The Beagles turns the wearer into a walking billboard for a cause and potentially starts a conversation every time somebody asks what those words mean.
A very British campaign
The official launch took place in London on Thursday 17 September, bringing together guests from fashion, film, music and photography.
The evening was supported by Vinombra premium prosecco and Jukes Cordialities, with cruelty-free Delilah Cosmetics contributing to the event’s goody bags. Celebrity and society photographer Dave Bennett was also there to capture the night.
But the launch is only the beginning.
Further activity around the campaign is planned, and the shirts are going on sale through Gresham Blake, with every purchase helping Beagle Freedom Project continue its work.
For me, the strongest campaigns are often those that take an incredibly complicated subject and give us one very simple reason to engage with it.
This one manages to combine great British creativity, a little punk provocation and an important animal welfare message in three unforgettable words.
God Save The Beagles.
And, hopefully, help give more of them the chance to discover what life outside a laboratory actually feels like.
