Cotton Fit For Royalty

English Fine Cottons was honoured to present Princess Anne with a special historic gift made from our first production of cotton.

We were invited to make the presentation at the 175th anniversary celebrations of the International Cotton Association (ICA).  We gave the Princess Royal a specially commissioned and framed piece of jacquard fabric produced from our very first batch of combed Supima® cotton yarn.  It was the first to be spun in Britain for decades.

Our general manager, Andy Ogden, handed over the gift to the Princess, who was guest of honour.

He said: “As one of the ICA’s newest members, it was a great privilege to present Princess Anne with these gifts.

Resurgence

“I met her again after the presentation and we continued our conversation about English Fine Cottons.  She offered her best wishes for our future, and was very interested in the current resurgence of textiles and the re-establishment of cotton spinning in the UK.

“We’ve received a huge amount of support from far and wide and it was wonderful to get a royal ‘seal of approval’.  Hopefully she could see for herself the quality of cotton yarns we will be producing in Britain.”

Almost 570 delegates from around the world attended the spectacular event in Liverpool.  The ICA was founded in the city in 1841 with the aim of promoting and protecting the global cotton trade.

A host of leaders of the industry made speeches and presentations at the two-day conference.  Held at the Titanic Hotel, the event closed with a gala dinner at the city’s famous St George’s Hall.