Kate Middletonis out with the in-laws!
The Duchess of Cambridge joinedPrince Charlesand his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall on Thursday morning for a rare joint royal engagement.
The visit to the Prince’s Foundation in London’s former docklands marked the first time Kate has joined Charles and Camilla for an outing since a February 2020 appearance at amilitary rehabilitation center. (Prince Williamalso came along during that visit.)
Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images
They were taken to see young people working with wax figures and watched as others did a (fully-clothed) life drawing class.
Downstairs, they also met graduates and young business leaders and from Charles’s Modern Artisan project, which is a collaboration between The Prince’s Foundation and YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, and the trio were shown the techniques behind traditional kilt production and silk smocking.
Young designer Nicole Christie, who trained with the Prince’s Foundation Modern Artisan project in Scotland, was thrilled to reconnect withPrince Charlesand meet Kate and Camilla for the first time as she takes her first steps in the fashion world with her own Ellipsis label.
“It was amazing seeing the duchesses interacting about one of my garments,” Christie tells PEOPLE. “I only started my business 18 months ago and never thought within that time I’d have royals looking at my garments. Kate was asking about the silk — I use 100% silk sourced in the U.K. They were really taken aback and it was an honor for me that I had the chance to meet them.”
She added, “They were really humble and interested in what I was talking about. It was not a day-filling visit — they were asking questions about my business and the support I’d had from the foundation and the Prince’s Trust.”
Christie gifted a silk evening purse to both Camilla and Kate, as well as a pink scrunchie for Kate’s daughterPrincess Charlotte.
Prince Charles, Kate Middleton and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images
In the sculpture class, students were creating head shapes with wax.
“Kate talked about how hard it was to work the wax. I told her that it doesn’t help when you’ve got really cold hands,” Cara MacKay, 18, says.
Florence Harrison, 19, was another student on the foundation course between school and university.
“They were really lovely and really friendly,” she said of the royals. “I spoke to Kate about the concept of translating a life drawing at school from 2D to this 3D shape. I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly they were.”
Kate Middleton.Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images
Abigail Ede, 18, is going to Oxford university later this year to study fine art after her work as a scholarship student brought her to the next level.
“It was quite overwhelming to meet them. I never thought I’d meet them. They were wishing me good luck,” she says after the royal trio watched her sketching at the life drawing class. “I was quite nervous before they got here, but they were really nice and just asked me about my work and you can tell they have a shared interest in art.”
Kate asked about her theme of some of her drawings. “She said, ‘They’re really good.’ She asked me what the theme was. I told her they were about the natural hair and movement and how it impacts the black community, and she said she really liked it.”
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source: people.com
