Thread that connects Kate from a Yorkshire mill to the Royal Ballet
HER GREAT great grandfather ran one of the top textile mills of Yorkshire’s West Riding, so it was no surprise that the craft of the costumier had rubbed off on the Duchess of Cambridge.
Kate spent two hours yesterday in the wardrobe department of the Royal Opera House, pursuing her passion, passed through her family, for textiles and costume design.
The visit is expected to be one of many, and followed an introduction to ballet given to her three-year-old daughter, Princess Charlotte, by a member of staff.
The little girl has been “so keen ever since”, Kate said.
Dressed in a magenta Oscar de la Renta jacket and skirt, which retails for £2,700, with a black Aspinal of London bag, she met principal dancers from the Royal Ballet, Lauren Cuthbertson, Laura Morera, Vadim Muntagirov and Thomas Mock, and watched them rehearse The Two Pigeons, which premieres tomorrow. The Duchess asked the dancers if they “like having the feeling of structure” in their costumes – to which Ms Cuthbertson quipped: “I like to have as much stretch as possible.” Kate’s family has links to one of the great Yorkshire textile dynasties, the Luptons, whose name appeared above the old Whitehall Mills in Leeds. Their descendants were among her wedding guests in 2011.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Sussex visited Mayhew, an animal welfare charity established in Victorian London to care for stray dogs and cats, for which she is now a patron.
Later, she and Harry joined a Royal Albert Hall audience to watch Cirque du Soleil performers displaying their acrobatic skills in aid of the Duke’s HIV charity, Sentebale.
In Scotland, the Duchess of Cornwall formally installed Prof George Boyne as the new principal and vice-chancellor of Aberdeen University, one of the oldest in Britain.