On Wednesday, the British royal and his wife, Camilla, queen consort, visited the historic Brick Lane Mosque in East London. The couple was greeted by a cheering crowd and dancers showering the streets with petals.
The king made headlines for a most unexpected embarrassment; when he removed his shoes upon entering the holy site, he revealed a visible hole on his right sock that was immediately captured by an eager photographer. Has the economic crisis hit the royal family? Not likely.
“Charles has always prided himself on his keen sense of style and his impeccably tailored wardrobe of bespoke suits, custom-made shirts and tasteful blazers,” royal biographer Christopher Andersen explained. “By the mid-‘90s, Charles was already spending six figures annually on clothes.” We can only imagine his embarrassment when the hole peeked out of his shoe for the entire world to see!
Why would a king have socks with holes in them? Anderson explains that,” Charles, ever the champion of sustainability, is not above having things mended. [He] has had favorite suits, tweed jackets and cashmere overcoats resewn and patched up. Even the childhood teddy bear he travels with is still regularly restuffed and stitched back up, a task that for decades was reserved exclusively for the king’s beloved nanny, Mabel Anderson.”
“In the end, for the king to be seen with a hole in his sock at a time of great financial hardship for most of his subjects is probably a good thing,” Andersen added.
If Charles’ frugality seems strange, rest assured that it isn’t his only eccentricity. “Charles has always insisted that his whims and idiosyncrasies be catered to throughout each day,” Andersen claimed. “Every morning, his valet carefully lays out his clothes, squeezes the toothpaste from a silver dispenser onto the monarch’s monogrammed toothbrush, shaves the king’s face with Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet shaving cream, helps him into his pants, buttons up his shirt, ties his tie, laces up his shoes and helps him into his jacket. At the end of the day, the process is reversed, with the valet also drawing the king’s bath and laying out his silk pajamas.”
“He also travels with an ice cube tray that only makes round ice cubes,” Andersen claimed. “He insists on round ice cubes because square ones make too much noise. The Queen Mother did the same thing, and the queen did the same thing. … When he shows up at someone’s house for a dinner party, he brings his own chef to make a separate meal for him. He has a very interesting, quirky lifestyle. … [He’s] a very multidimensional character.”
Fortunately, he also has a sense of humor and took it all in stride.
