King sells limited edition headscarves inspired by the late Queen
The King is selling limited edition silk headscarves inspired by Elizabeth II’s love of colour.
The late Queen often wore a silk scarf tied around her head, particularly at outdoor or sporting events, or when pottering around the Windsor and Sandringham estates off-duty.
Her elder son has joined forces with eco-friendly design duo Vin + Omi to produce a limited run of 100 brightly coloured scarves that are being sold in the Sandringham estate shop for £85 each.
Three design variations were created and the King chose the final design.
A carbon offset programme to counteract the environmental cost of producing the scarves involved collecting every milk carton from the Sandringham canteen to be made into furniture.
For every milk carton collected, the designers turned a plastic bottle from their clean up schemes into microfiber bonded textiles.
The garments feature bold floral patterns, similar to those often worn by the late Queen.
She was known to favour a scarf by French designer Hermès, which typically cost around £300.
But her vast collection included graphic 1960s prints, paisley prints, traditional florals and even a dog-patterned garment in an apparent nod to her beloved corgis.
The collaboration with Vin + Omi coincides with the designers’ exhibition of garments, all made using plant waste from the royal gardens. Royal Garden Waste to Fashion’s Future opened at Sandringham in March and runs until Oct 11.
Vin Cara and Omi Ong first met the King, then The Prince of Wales, in May 2018 and explained to him their efforts to reimagine a textile-world tradition of weaving fibres from nettle stems into fabric.
The King told them he had more than enough of the weeds in his garden at Highgrove and offered them for use.
The project required nettles to be left to grow taller than usual to have the right woody stems.
After collecting the plants, which would otherwise have been strimmed, Vin + Omi also accepted surplus willow and hazel to make the handles of shopping bags and used chicken wire for other clothing.
The environmentally conscious King was impressed with their work and has since worked with the duo on multiple occasions.
Last year, the designers used the giant butterbur plant – a “nightmare” invasive weed – from Sandringham to create a statement dress.
They have also made a sustainable “little black dress” using discarded horsehair and nettles from Highgrove.
In 2022, the Royal Collection sold a £195 purple and gold headscarf on its website to mark the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
