Nettles with royal roots hit the London catwalks

LONDON: Fashion models in Prince Charles’ country estate in south-west England, dressed in nets made from cut-out nets, took to the runway in one of the year’s most unusual presentations as London Fashion Week came to a close on Tuesday.

The quirky eco-friendly clothing was born from an unlikely collaboration between the heir to the British throne, who is passionate about the environment, and sustainable fashion pioneers Vin + Omi.

The designer duo met the Prince of Wales last year and the conversation quickly turned to horticulture and its place in fashion-focused research and development.

“We were looking at nettles, cow parsley and horseradish,” the British one half of the couple told AFP ahead of their show.

“We discussed it with Prince Charles and he said: ‘I’ve got lots of bunches at Highgrove, why don’t you come and get them?’,” she said of the royal family’s private residence in the Gloucestershire countryside. Gah added, referring to .

And so began an unlikely alliance between two self-proclaimed “ultra punk” stylists and upper echelons of Britain’s royal family.

“It’s a very strange marriage,” Winn admitted.

For Omi, who is from Singapore, Prince Charles’ green ethos was “mind-blowing”.

“You wouldn’t think that someone like the future king of England (thinks about) that,” he said, adding that “proper conversations about the environment” clearly affect him.

– ‘Very time consuming’ –

The fruits of this shared interest were unveiled at the Savoy Hotel in central London on Tuesday night.

Among the creations that hit the catwalk: a gorgeous beige coat, which resembles wool but is actually made from thousands of nettle plants, that wouldn’t look out of place on Prince Charles’ wife Camilla.

A team of students from Oxford Brookes University collected the plants and cleaned the leaves.

Vin + Omi has developed a technique to recover the fibers from each nettle stalk, which is then bleached with eco-friendly natural products.

“Nettles is a very ancient way of making cloth,” Winn said, adding that the process is “laborious” and “very time-consuming.”

He added that they were historically a source of clothing for the “landless”.

The two continue to work with the head gardener at Highgrove and explore what other elements of organic gardens — including discarded items like sacks or flower pots — can be creatively recycled. can

They have already reclaimed wood from the earth and turned it into jewelry to decorate the models.

Other creations by the duo beyond Highgroove included shirts made from recycled paint tubes and clothes made from recycled plastic collected from rivers and oceans.

The V&A, London’s museum of art and design, plans to acquire some of the fabrics to bolster its permanent collection dedicated to sustainable fashion.

– ‘Hippies’ –

Vin + Omi’s eco-friendly designs seem to resonate with the growing public concern over climate change. However, this was not always the case.

“When we graduated 20 years ago, everyone called us hippies,” Omi recalled. “We predicted that sustainable fashion would be a big thing.”

The 43-year-old is motivated by growing activism around environmental concerns, which has drawn praise from pressure group Extinction Rebellion — who has repeatedly described fashion week and the wider industry as “fantastic”.

The duo is working on nearly 40 projects worldwide, from the UK to China.

In New York, they’re turning plastic collected from the Hudson River into t-shirts to sell locally.

Elsewhere, they are exploring the potential of different natural materials, such as making leather from chestnuts or mushrooms.

But Omi is skeptical of the industry’s overall efforts, which he sees as largely so-called “greenwashing” — taking superficial environmental action to make people feel better.