King Charles Hosts a Fashion Show
It’s time to put to bed rumors that King Charles III has died, speculation that has surely been fueled by his recent cancer diagnosis and by the fumbled communications about Catherine, Princess of Wales, as she recovers from a surgery in January. According to Buckingham Palace, the king is alive — and seemingly healthy enough to host a fashion show.
On Saturday, an exhibition of garments made as part of a collaboration between Charles and the designers Vin Cara and Omi Ong, who go by Vin + Omi, opens at Sandringham Estate, the royal family’s private property in Norfolk County, England.
The designers created the clothing in the exhibition, “Royal Garden Waste to Fashion’s Future,” using detritus from gardens at Sandringham and at Highgrove House, Charles’s private residence in Gloucester. Mr. Cara and Mr. Ong have been collaborating with Charles, an avid gardener and longtime champion of healthy urbanism and sustainability, since 2018, when he suggested at a gala dinner that they could use discarded nettle from Highgrove as material for a collection they were showing in London.
Mr. Cara and Mr. Ong, whose fans are said to include Kate Moss, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama, have since forged relationships with gardeners at the royal estates. But Charles’s personal involvement in the partnership has continued unabated.
“The king is constantly suggesting new projects and ideas,” Mr. Cara said in an interview. He recalled how Charles, after strolling the grounds at Castle Mey, a former royal residence in Scotland, sent them a supply of bog cotton found on the property, which the designers used to fashion frocks. “We now have free rein to experiment with any waste material from his estates,” Mr. Cara said.
