The Duchess of Cambridge joined Prince Charles and Camilla on Thursday for their first ever joint engagement to celebrate the next generations of artists.
The royal trio visited Trinity Buoy Wharf in east London, a centre for the Prince’s Foundation, to meet students learning traditional industries including textiles, stone crafting and wax sculpting.
The Prince of Wales personally invited Kate to the education hub owing to their shared love of the arts and passion for textiles.
After arriving in convoy, the royal party posed by the River Thames against a backdrop of the O2 Arena.
Then they met with students demonstrating their drawing and sewing-machine skills.
Kate and Camilla spoke to two home schooled sisters who joined a scheme with the Prince’s Foundation last year to learn fashion design, with a view to gaining work experience in the textiles industry.
Soukayna and Safiya Ouhammou, from Woodford, showed the Duchesses their designs for jumpers they are making as part of the course.
Soukayna, 15, said they started off by taking photographs on their phones of lily flowers on the river behind the centre before sketching out their ideas that would lead to the design.
She added: “We started by thinking about our inspiration from the things around us, so I took some pictures when we went for a walk by the river and the lily looked so beautiful on the water.
“It gave me the idea to make a contrast of colours on the jumper which could be stitched together, one on top of the other.”
Kate said: “It’s fascinating to see how the whole process works, it’s a great idea.”
After being shown the sewing machines to stitch the materials together, Camilla said: “You’re obviously very good at this. I did it so long ago but I’m very bad at it now.”
A royal aide said the visit was “especially significant” as it was not only the first time the Duchesses had joined together with the Prince of Wales for an engagement but that it was on his invitation to showcase the work of his Foundation.
In June 2020, The Duchess of Cornwall was joined by The Duchess of Cambridge on a joint video call to mark Children’s Hospice Week.
In February 2020, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall were joined by The Duke and The Duchess of Cambridge on a Leicestershire Away Day.
The royals joined a life drawing class with the latest intake of students at the Foundation from September, although any potential blushes were spared as the model was fully clothed.
Speaking to Imogen Lewis, 19, from Suffolk, Camilla joked: “I think I’d rather be doing the drawing with you!
“It looks such fun. How long do you have to do it?”
Imogen explained the students have two types of classes to teach long and short form, ranging from five minute to two hour sessions.
Speaking to Hildy Biernoff, 20, from London, said: “Kate told me she was amazed by all the different styles everyone has. She said when you step back and look at everyone’s drawings it shows a different aspect of their perception of what we are all seeing.”
Prince Charles stopped to speak to Hannah Ffytche, 19, from London, to inquire about the process the students go through when composing their pieces.
He said: “It must be very daunting when you have a blank page in front of you and a time limit. Where do you possibly start?”
After her exchange with the heir, Hannah said: “He was very interested in the life drawing and said he say it as a connection to the natural world and everyday life, which is a good way of looking at it.
“It’s about feeling and you can interpret it however you want to.”
As the Duchesses continued to speak to the life drawing students, Charles appeared to spot a fossil like snail’s shell sculpture on a table of work completed by the students and peeled off to speak to stone carving teacher Lily Marsh.
Ms Marsh, 38, said: “The Prince spotted it straight away, he was fascinated by it.
“He said the snail’s shell is one of those incredible creations of the natural world that has its roots squarely in the world of mathematics and geometry.
“He said ‘it is a perfect example of nature and philosophy being interconnected in a holistic way’.
“It’s no mistake, it really is geometric in its shape and design and for its success to survive, so he is exactly right.”
The Foundation’s centre at Trinity Buoy Wharf, where classes in traditional building skills such as thatching, blacksmithing and stonemasonry as well as associated skills such as geometry and sculpting are also offered, has seen huge interest in the local community as word has spread of the courses.
Charles told Ms Marsh of the “importance of safeguarding traditional skills for future generations”.
She added: “That is our focus here, to invest in the next generation of budding artists and craftspeople who may have never even learned of these techniques before but could go on to have hugely successful and flourishing experiences and even careers from them.
“The Prince’s Foundation certainly believes in the power of opportunity and you are seeing it being realised right here.”
The Prince’s Foundation’s Diploma Year, an intensive, focused, full-time, one-year course for school-leavers with ambitions of studying fine art or applied art and who are seeking a stepping stone to art school or university.
In its first year, students of the course have gained places at art schools at Oxford and Cambridge, among other top universities.
