Buckingham Palace curtains recycled into kimonos in sustainable fashion drive

Riley Dodie, from Glasgow, wears a kimono made from royal curtains Credit: AP

Curtains that used to hang in Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle have been upcycled and transformed into luxury kimonos following a suggestion by King Charles III.

Vast swathes of rich fabrics, which are believed to have dressed the windows in family and private rooms during the late Queen’s reign, had collected in storage after decades' worth of clear-outs.

One of the patchwork kimonos made from material which used to adorn rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle Credit: Jane Barlow/PA

Now, the delft blue floral, vintage rose and teal, and rich damask burnt orange drapery has been repurposed into hand-made patchwork kimonos by arts students through an initiative by Charles’s King’s Foundation. The pieces are set to be auctioned off for the charity.

Students from the foundation’s batch production skills course used the luxury fabrics as part of a training programme designed to sharpen their abilities to produce hand-crafted garments.

The King put the foundation in touch with curtain storerooms at Windsor Great Park, where unused royal materials are kept and repairs undertaken.

In early 2022, the students at Dumfries House in East Ayrshire, where the charity is headquartered, were sent a range of 30 different patterns as part of a 50-metre delivery. Students were tasked with repurposing them into a modern fashion collection fit for retail.

'Like Christmas morning'

Jacqueline Farrell, the foundation’s education director, told the PA news agency the students were surprised to be handling the historic royal cloth.

Ms Farrell said: “It was like Christmas morning getting those bundles through and opening them all up, and rummaging to see what we’d got.

The upcycled damask burnt orange and teal short kimono Credit: Jane Barlow/PA

“I think once they got over the shock of being asked to cut up some royal curtains, the real challenge was in the design.

“How do you take these fabrics and make something contemporary-looking, and something that people will want to wear nowadays?”

The armfuls of material spanned more than 40 years of royal curtain design throughout Elizabeth II’s reign, dating as far back as the 1950s and up to the 1990s. Many of the designs were inspired by nature with floral or large leaf patterns, and a number of pieces from the 1980s include some denim.

A kimono design, in two styles, was chosen because of its inclusive one-size-fits-all shape, its versatility and its sustainable geometric near-zero-waste pattern.

Ms Farrell said the curtains most likely originally came from the royal family’s private sitting rooms.

A bold denim blue and yellow damask short kimono made out of old royal curtains Credit: Jane Barlow/PA

“Some of (the rooms) would have certainly been fairly grand in themselves but I would imagine (they were used in) more of the family rooms – the private rooms.”

The auction will include four delft blue floral kimono coats; one vintage rose and duck egg short kimono; one damask burnt orange and teal short kimono; and one bold denim blue and yellow damask short kimono.

Each kimono took eight to 10 hours to tailor by hand.

The handmade delft blue floral kimono coat with gold brocade cuff Credit: Jane Barlow/PA

Ms Farrell said she hoped the initiative might inspire others around the country to reuse their old curtains for garments or other craft pieces.

“It’s not just about making a collection to be sold,” she said.

“We hope this project will show what can be done with vintage materials in terms of repurposing and upcycling."

The idea for the project originated from the King Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA

Any leftover bits from the cutting process were saved to be used for applique sewing classes in the foundation’s project in schools and some of the remaining material will be used in other initiatives.

The King set up the King’s Foundation, previously known as the Prince’s Foundation, as a means of training up the next generation of skilled craftspeople – including in fashion and textiles – in heritage techniques essential to many traditional UK industries.

One of the four delft blue floral kimono coats at Dumfries House, the headquarters of the King’s Foundation Credit: Jane Barlow/PA

A spokesman for the King’s Foundation said: “It was very much the King’s idea to use the curtains.

“He found out about the material and said ‘Right, this can definitely be put to good use’.”

There is no set guide price for the kimonos and money raised will go to the foundation to support its future textiles programme, which marks its 10th anniversary next year.

The online auction opened on Sunday, and will close just before midnight on December 8.

This is the Royal Rota - our weekly podcast about the royal family, with ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson.