From the Embassy for breakfast, to the Palace for lunch. How our CEO spent last Thursday.
From the Istituto Marangoni showcase to The King's Foundation Awards.
Tamara Cincik outside St James’s Palace, where she was a judge for The King’s Foundation Awards, in the presence of HM the King.
Last Thursday, Tamara attended the breakfast showcase of 10 graduates from the Istituto Marangoni BA Fashion course at the Italian Embassy in the presence of His Excellency, the Italian Ambassador Inigo Lambertini. The Ambassador spoke powerfully of the power - “soft and hard,” that he recognises as part of the cultural and economic value fashion has to the Italian state. Of the university and its campus in East London, he said: “It is a bridge between two creative fashion capitals—a place where education meets industry, where talent meets opportunity, and where Italian culture flourishes, reinterpreted by young voices who carry it into the future.”
Attendees included Suzy Menkes and Alistair Guy. The trained in London at IM, international designers who showcased were:
Aniket Chandela, Anna Sheremetyeva, Charlene Osmond, Gaye Sahutogullari, Henry Crawford, Jinxuan Mao, Micaela Ismodes Sole, Sofia Kovalska, Sofia Rukina, Thierry Ruetschi
His excellency, Inigo Lambertini the Italian Ambassador with the 10 chosen designers and members of the Istituto Marangoni team at the Italian Embassy in London.
The King’s Foundation Awards, June 2025. HM the King, alongside Ambassadors, winners of the awards and Meryl Streep at St James’s Palace. Photographer: Ian Jones.
The 35th year of The King’s Foundation was marked with the 2nd year of The King’s Foundation Awards, with Tamara as one of the judges. These awards recognise the incredible talent and work of the charity’s students, graduates and partners across sustainability, traditional heritage crafts and environmental education. Emerging talent winner Emily Hurst has recently completed the first year of the CHANEL and King’s Foundation Métiers d’Art Fellowship in Millinery, based at Highgrove Gardens. In her final year of university, Emily independently learned the heritage craft of straw braiding to produce historically accurate hats, a skill that has since become central to her practice. She collected her award from (recently knighted) Sir David Beckham.
For Tamara, the most poignant winner was Auchinleck Primary School, which is a school of 180 pupils aged 4-12, 90% of whom are from the most deprived areas of Scotland. The school has enthusiastically adopted The King’s Foundation’s Harmony education programme, supporting and encouraging its staff to build Harmony into their annual lesson planning. The team were speechless when told they had won, and the children overjoyed when they called to tell them the good news. King Charles iii’s philosophy of ‘Harmony’ is a universal expression for the order, connection and balance found in nature.
The Harmony philosophy sees everything in nature as interconnected, including ourselves. This means taking a holistic approach to the challenges facing our planet, and looking to solve these challenges by working with nature, rather than against her.
Alan Titchmarsh presents the Community Partnership of the Year Award to Auchinleck Primary School.