The Prince of Wales is currently in India undertaking his tenth official visit to the country, but it also happens to coincide with a very special day – his birthday!
Today on November 14th Prince Charles celebrates his 71st birthday, and while he doesn’t have his wife Duchess Camilla by his side, there will no doubt be some festivities to mark the special day on the itinerary.
For his first birthday engagement, the future King attended a meeting with the British Asian Trust in Mumbai, who are working to tackle poverty across South Asia, and was joined by a very unexpected guest, pop singer Katy Perry.
As Clarence House explains, the Harleys in Hawaii singer who is engaged to British actor Orlando Bloom had heard about the work of the Trust and joined other supporters to learn more about the important work – we wonder if she sang him Happy Birthday.
The meeting comes as Clarence House also announced the exciting news that Charles’ foundation, the Prince’s Foundation have partnered with Yoox Net-a-Porter Group to produce a sustainable menswear and womenswear collection designed by students from the UK and Italy.
The project, coined the Modern Artisan Project, will expand on the foundation’s commitment to strengthen textile skills training within the UK with a focus on sustainability.
Six Italian students from design school Politecnico di Milano will be tasked with designing a luxury Autumn/Winter capsule collection of menswear and womenswear, who will then collaborate with graduate students from the UK who will craft the fabrics.
“Designed in Italy and crafted in the UK, the Modern Artisan Collection will be an important expression of how talent and technology can work across boundaries and borders,” explains Federico Marchetti, CEO and chairman at Yoox Net-a-Porter Group.
The collection is set to launch in mid-2020 to coincide with Yoox Net-a-Porter Group’s 20th anniversary and will be sold across all of the company’s brands.
Profits made from the collection will be donated to the Prince’s Foundation to support charitable work and following its launch will be exhibited at the Michelangelo Foundation’s Homo Faber showcase of European craftsmanship.
Prince Charles follows in the footsteps of his daughter-in-law Duchess Meghan who also launched a collaborative capsule collection earlier this year to benefit one of her patronages Smart Works, which worked on a 1:1 basis, where for every item bought, one item would also be donated to the charity, which helps to dress and support women looking for employment.
The future King of England, who is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history, touched down in New Delhi yesterday to a jam-packed itinerary of engagements focusing around sustainable markets, climate change, social finance and celebrating the British-Indian connections.
On Wednesday Prince Charles visited the National Weather Forecasting Centre, rode an e-rickshaw at SUN Mobility and met with winners of a sustainable energy award.
Prince Charles rides an electric rickshaw in New Delhi, India. (Image: Getty)
He also met with the President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s official residence, had a tour of the Herbal Garden at the residence and joined in on the festivities to celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.
Prince Charles joins celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in New Delhi, India. (Image: Getty)
While Duchess Camilla did not join Charles on his visit to India, she is set to join him as they embark on their royal tour of New Zealand, touching down on Sunday, November 17th.
The couple’s one-week tour will focus on visiting programmes and organisations working in areas they are committed to supporting, with Prince Charles focusing on youth and environmental issues, while Duchess Camilla’s will include literacy and domestic violence.
Charles and Camilla’s tour will include visits to the country’s largest city Auckland, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Christchurch and Kaikōura.
Following the royals’ visit, Camilla will travel back to England, while Prince Charles carries on to the Commonwealth island nations of Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands – his first visit to the country.
