King Charles steps up his fashion game with snazzy tribute to Queen Camilla after she pulls out of engagement

King Charles’ snazzy tribute to Queen Camilla after she pulled out of a joint engagement meant the monarch stepped up his fashion game. 

• The King visited The Felix Project in London wearing a special owl and cat patterned tie. 
• This could be a nod to The Owl and the Pussy-Cat poem and Queen Camilla is known for her love for literature.  
• This royal news comes as Carole Middleton continued to showcase the special family bond with a nod to Prince George's “dream job”. 

King Charles stepped out solo on February 22 for a visit to The Felix Project. As the UK capital’s largest food distribution charity they help to distribute surplus food to over 1,000 schools and community groups. Heading to their East London site, His Majesty met the charity’s dedicated staff and volunteers and unveiled a new freezer - one of 600 that will be sent to community partners to help prevent food waste. Queen Consort Camilla had originally been supposed to visit too and eagle-eyed fans might have noticed King Charles’ snazzy tribute to his wife in her absence…

After testing positive for Covid-19 for the second time last week a Palace spokesperson confirmed that Queen Camilla wouldn’t be accompanying King Charles to The Felix Project. 

“[T]o allow for additional preparation ahead of Thursday’s rescheduled literary reception and other commitments, Her Majesty will not be attending today’s Felix Project engagement,” they announced. 

Though she seems to have been in King Charles’ thoughts when he was getting ready for his solo visit. King Charles’ snazzy tribute to her might not be immediately obvious but his pastel pink tie features some pretty sweet animal designs. Close-up snaps of his tie reveal that the pattern is one of owls and pussycats which immediately conjures up the idea of the iconic nonsense poem, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. 

Although the owls and cats on the tie aren’t in a pea green boat, the association of the two animals together is perhaps derived from the 19th century Edward Lear children’s poem. And if there’s one thing that Queen Camilla is known to love, it's literature! The Queen launched her own Reading Room book club and is patron of Book Aid International and The Literary Trust.

Speaking just a few weeks ago during a visit to mark literacy charity Coram Beanstalk’s 50th anniversary, Queen Camilla helped to act out a poetry reading and discussed how important promoting reading amongst children is.

“You can escape into different worlds, you can laugh, you can cry, you can learn and it’s thanks to all of you that it’s happening to all these children, so thank you very much from the bottom of my heart,” Queen Camilla declared, as per The Telegraph.

Given her well-known love of books and passion for children reading in particular, King Charles’ snazzy owl and pussycat tie could be seen as a special tribute to her. He’s also no stranger to expressing himself through unique ties and in January he wore a fun dinosaur print tie to a church service near Sandringham House. 

Although His Majesty’s looks generally consist of a formal blue suit, it seems he’s getting more experimental when it comes to his accessories and the owl and pussy-cat one certainly made a statement.