documento

The Inside Story
COUNTESS
OF WESSEX
SEW MUCH FUN
AT COLLEGE
42
The Countess of Wessex
showed off her sewing
skills on a trip to the London
College of Fashion last week
and even had the students
in stitches.
“Better keep your
fingers away from the
needle,” warned
embroidery tutor Andy
Kenny as Sophie sat
down at a sewing
machine (above).
“Where’s the
nearest A&E”,
quipped Sophie,
who considers
herself something
of an expert
seamstress. “Yes I
have done this
before,” she told
the class.
In the knitwear
workshop, Sophie
took one look at a
riot of pink and
orange wool being used by student
Jacob Patterson, 31 (right), and
asked: “Are you making a mankini”
In the make-up department the
49-year-old was fascinated by a class in
which tutors showed how to add a 3D
twist to 16th-century Japanese geisha
cosmetic styles (below, left and right).
The countess, wearing a Diane
von Furstenberg grey wool dress
(left), impressed all the students she
met at the Lime Grove campus.
She became the college’s first royal
patron last year and intends to visit
every campus at the college, where
courses on offer include photography,
costume design, textiles, embroidery,
knitting, make-up effects and hair
prosthetics.
The college even has hives and
produces its own honey, a sample of
which was given to Sophie as she left.
“Oh great, we’re a honey
household,” she said. “It’s lovely to
have the college’s honey because bees
are always fashionable, wearing black
and yellow.”
“She takes a great interest in every
aspect of our work”, Professor Hilary
Grainger, dean of academic
development, told hello!.
“She makes a point of speaking to
every student in the room, so we feel
lucky to have her as our first royal
patron.”
REPORTS: JUDY WADE. KATHRYN WILSON. NICK VINCENT. PHOTOS: MARK STEWART. PA PHOTOS. PHOTOSHOT. THE SUN/NEWS SYNDICATION