(USNewsMag.com) – On a recent visit to a mosque, King Charles suffered a unique brand of holiness.
King Charles III had removed his shoes at a London mosque while attending with his wife, Queen Consort Camilla. The media immediately seized upon a fashion faux pas. The king had a hole in one of his socks.
The monarch, 74, arrived at the historic Brick Lane Mosque in East London on Wednesday, February 8, dressed in a heavy overcoat over a dress shirt and dark blue slacks. As is customary in places of prayer, he removed his shoes, and he revealed a little hole on the top of his right black sock. When Camilla, 75, entered the mosque, she completed her cream-colored outfit with a white headscarf.
It hasn’t been all awful fashion news for the monarch. Charles received kudos for his eco-friendly style last month after donning a tweed coat he’s worn since the 1980s. His Majesty has always been an advocate for sustainability and environmental problems, especially when it comes to his clothing.
Charles said to British Vogue in 2020 that he would have shoes — or any piece of apparel — fixed if he could, rather than simply toss it away.
The King said his family used to take their shoes to the cobbler in Scotland, and he would watch with curiosity as he peeled the soles off and then placed new soles on, and because of this, he believes there are excellent prospects for individuals to start small enterprises associated with repair, maintenance, and reuse.
Charles told the fashion magazine, “I feel that there are enormous chances, especially today, within the sustainable fashion industry, to oppose this astonishing tendency of throw-away clothing—or throw away anything, to be honest.”
But these quaint anecdotes don’t explain why his socks, if not thrown out, couldn’t have been mended, like his tale of the shoes.
Be confident that Charles has more eccentricities than just his unusual thrifty ways. The Royal biographer, Christopher Andersen, says that Charles “has always asked that his whims and eccentricities be attended to throughout each day.”
Andersen said that every morning, the king’s valet meticulously arranges his clothes, squeezes toothpaste onto the monarch’s monogrammed toothbrush, uses Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet shaving cream to shave the king’s face, helps him into his pants, buttons up his shirt, ties his tie, laces up his shoes, and helps him into his jacket. The procedure is reversed at night when the valet prepares the king’s silk pajamas and draws his bath.
It’s good to be the king.
Copyright, USNewsMag.com
