{"id":438592,"date":"2025-09-20T13:10:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T13:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/438592\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T13:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T13:10:23","slug":"princess-of-wales-approved-designer-turns-scraps-into-sustainable-showstoppers-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/438592\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess of Wales-approved designer turns scraps into sustainable showstoppers \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Princess of Wales handed Patrick McDowell the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in May earlier this year, it wasn\u2019t just a royal handshake but a public recognition of the young Liverpool-born designer rewriting the rules of luxury.<\/p>\n

At London Fashion Week, McDowell proved why, turning deadstock lace, surplus brocade and family memories into The Lancashire Rose \u2013 a title acting as a double tribute to McDowell\u2019s northern roots: the historic red rose of Lancashire and to their grandmother, whose sewing inspired their traditional yet ingenious designs.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Princess of Wales presenting Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design to designer Patrick McDowell (Aaron Chown\/PA) <\/p>\n

Instead of the usual, glossy white runway, McDowell chose a decommissioned power station in south London.<\/p>\n

The catwalk ran between rows of old dials and Bakelite control panels scattered with rose petals. The setting was an amalgamation of a chapel and a factory, underscoring a show about soft power and hard graft.<\/p>\n

\"‘It’s<\/a>\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The clothes mirrored this tension.<\/p>\n

\"ModelsModels backstage at the Patrick McDowell show in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, south London, during London Fashion Week. Picture date: Saturday September 20, 2025. (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

McDowell\u2019s style treads the line between vintage romance and theatrical drama without ever tipping into costume, and The Lancashire Rose collection showed that balance at its best.<\/p>\n

Models walked in butter-yellow brocade jackets cut like armour; black satin slip dresses glittering with hand-applied crystals shaped like safety pins; sheer shirt-dresses covered in painterly red and black blooms.<\/p>\n

The finale \u201cbride\u201d carried calla lilies like a ghost from an old family wedding, her gown trailing hand-stitched appliques that echoed cracked porcelain.<\/p>\n

\"ModelsModels backstage at the Patrick McDowell show in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, south London, during London Fashion Week. Picture date: Saturday September 20, 2025. (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

Roses appeared everywhere as the show\u2019s motif, embroidered, appliqued, layered into tulle or simply suggested in the way a skirt opened like petals.<\/p>\n

It was easy to be drawn to the romance, but there was discernible substance to the collection.<\/p>\n

Beneath the ruffles and embroidery McDowell showed intense precision with his construction.<\/p>\n

Seams were finished as carefully as couture. Linings were cut from rescued silk.<\/p>\n

\"ModelsModels on the catwalk at the Patrick McDowell show in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, south London, during London Fashion Week. Picture date: Saturday September 20, 2025. (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

Every garment came from a small, deliberate run rather than mass production.<\/p>\n

McDowell has built their reputation by turning down the easy route of bulk manufacturing, and you could see this difference: hems with the weight of real fabric, embroidery with the slight irregularity from a hand rather than a machine.<\/p>\n

However, they had announced this collection would be their first ready-to-wear.<\/p>\n

\"ModelsModels backstage at the Patrick McDowell show in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, south London, during London Fashion Week. Picture date: Saturday September 20, 2025. (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t done ready-to-wear in the past because I don\u2019t agree with the endless production volumes,\u201d the designer told Vogue Business.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the idea is to make it feel extremely special and keep the exclusivity, and each piece will be numbered.\u201d<\/p>\n

This notion of slow-living was apparent in the clothes but also in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Models carried bouquets instead of handbags; the soundtrack mixed industrial hums with hymnal vocals.<\/p>\n

\"ModelsModels on the catwalk at the Patrick McDowell show in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, south London, during London Fashion Week. Picture date: Saturday September 20, 2025. (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

The title was more than branding. It was a love letter to McDowell\u2019s grandmother and to their northern roots, but also an exploration of contrasts: a rose is fragile on the surface but has thorns that let it endure.<\/p>\n

That theme ran through the silhouettes: soft petals versus sharp cuts, and gave the collection its edge.<\/p>\n

Winning the Queen Elizabeth II Award and meeting Kate during the presentation hasn\u2019t softened their vision so much as confirmed it.<\/p>\n

McDowell remains one of the few designers able to make circular practices feel like a continuation of British craft rather than an earnest add-on.<\/p>\n

The Lancashire Rose collection showcased where British luxury may \u2013 or at least should \u2013 be heading: romantic, responsible and most importantly, real.<\/p>\n

\"ElizaEliza and Amelia Spencer sat front row (Jeff Moore\/PA) <\/p>\n

McDowell\u2019s royal connection didn\u2019t end with their award.<\/p>\n

Among the guests were the Prince of Wales\u2019 cousins on his mother\u2019s side, Eliza and Amelia Spencer, lending yet another Windsor-adjacent presence to the label.<\/p>\n

Their appearance underscores how McDowell\u2019s blend of heritage, craft and sustainability is starting to resonate far beyond fashion insiders \u2013 but with the next generation of Britain\u2019s most famous family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Princess of Wales handed Patrick McDowell the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[3674,7709,7714,7713,2915,2584,148525,13396,533,22881,24246,148526,2832,532,2831,7710,519,448,5776,16,7711,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-438592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-breaking","9":"tag-british-royal-family","10":"tag-catherine","11":"tag-catherine-middleton","12":"tag-exclusive","13":"tag-fashion","14":"tag-fashion-and-beuaty","15":"tag-kate","16":"tag-kate-middleton","17":"tag-lifestyle-news","18":"tag-london-fashion-week","19":"tag-patrick-mcdowell","20":"tag-prince-of-wales","21":"tag-prince-william","22":"tag-princess-of-wales","23":"tag-royal-families","24":"tag-royal-family","25":"tag-royals","26":"tag-trending","27":"tag-uk","28":"tag-uk-royal-family","29":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115236794017603567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}