A suit made from holly trimmings taken from the King’s garden will premiere at the start of London Fashion Week.
The creation, by the sustainable design duo Vin + Omi, has the texture of wool and the appearance of “strawberry cream” after being dyed using beetroot.
The material has been celebrated as a fashion first. It was made from extracting cellulose from Sandringham holly which was spun into fibres.
Dame Prue Leith, who recently stepped down as a Bake Off presenter, wore the suit on the Vin + Omi catwalk on Tuesday, on the eve of her 86th birthday.
Dame Prue struts her stuff with Vin, right, and Omi at art’otel Hoxton
YUI MOK/PA
Omi, 50, who does not use his surname, said: “We’ve been looking at holly because holly is so evasive and it’s prolific — it gets trimmed all the time.
“It took us slightly over a year to trial the process … this has never been made.”
He added: “The suit has got a very fine white pinstripe, then it’s got a pink tint to it and then you get this red, almost very punky, tie-dye effect on it, so it looks like strawberry cream. It’s beautiful.”
Vin + Omi’s fashion show, called JORD after the Norse earth goddess, also included plant textiles from nettle, butterbur and wood clippings from Sandringham.
RAF waste cans from Brize Norton were made into metal textile, and waste paint tubes were made into recycled polyester print dresses.
Beneath the holly suit, Leith wore a blouse made from waste linen from art’otel Hoxton, which hosted the show.
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Vin + Omi have been making materials from plant waste on the King’s estates of Sandringham and Highgrove since 2019.
Last summer, the design duo showcased a collection of 26 garments at an exhibition inside Sandringham, called Royal Garden Waste to Fashion’s Future. This included a dress made from butterbur, a prolific spreading plant found growing beside the lakes.
“It was great, walking around with him [Charles], just the three of us,” Omi said. “I can see why people fall in love with him when they meet him.”
In September, Leith debuted an opera coat from fabric made of another Sandringham plant, the overgrown ornamental shrub known as red dogwood.
Vin + Omi first met Charles before Harry and Meghan’s wedding, when he asked what they were working on next.
They explained they hoped to collaborate with large family estates in the UK to use their plant waste, prompting Charles to invite them to Highgrove. Since then, the designers have had free rein in his garden and kept up with their achievements.
The distinctive “strawberries and cream” appearance was obtained by using a dye derived from beetroot
GARETH CATTERMOLE/GETTY IMAGES
“His team knows that when we come down, we raid his composting,” Omi said, adding that he was once invited to a reception at Highgrove to which he was required to wear a suit.
“The gardeners were all making fun of me because they normally see me in wellies,” he said.
Omi said he hoped the King would one day wear one of his designs, joking that he would like a “royal warrant”.
The designers have donated their research in plant textiles to the V&A. Some of their designs will be sold at 8pm on Wednesday in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
Omi said: “For 24 years we have never sold a single thing, but six months ago I had two heart attacks and then found out that I have only 40 per cent of my heart function. I had one again last week.
“It’s something very close to my heart, pardon my pun. We thought if we’re ever going to sell something it’s got to be for a bigger cause rather than fashion or vanity.”