Creator of shoes worn by the Queen among innovators honoured at awards reception
Among the award winners was Lisa Kay, the creator and chief executive of Sole Bliss, whose products Camilla has frequently been seen wearing at public events, and is said to love for their stylish yet comfortable design.
Ms Kay, whose business won an award in the international trade category, shook hands with Charles at the reception, and the pair exchanged a few words.
She said: 'I (told the King) that Her Royal Highness has purchased our shoes, so hopefully she finds them comfortable.
'He said, 'She like a heel that's not too narrow', so I said 'Yes, a block heel, I understand', he said: 'Yes, a block heel!'
'He said it gets harder to wear heels as you get older, and I said 'I understand'.'
Sole Bliss was launched as a 'very small' business in 2017, Ms Kay said.
Its popularity soared after Camilla was spotted wearing a pair of Sole Bliss shoes at the 2018 Royal Cornwall Show.
'A year after we launched, that was amazing,' Ms Kay said.
She added: 'Women generally just need comfort, so you're not thinking about your feet, you're thinking about where you are, what you're doing…
'It's for every job really – but especially royalty.'
Julia Roberts, Dame Helen Mirren, and Olivia Colman are among the celebrities who were also seen wearing Sole Bliss at public events.
Asked how she felt about receiving the King's Award for Enterprise, Ms Kay said: 'It just means the world.
'It's so exciting, you can see I'm very overwhelmed,' she added, laughing and fanning her face with her hand.
Ms Kay was also praised by Dame Annabel Whitehead, a courtier and former lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who walked up to her during the reception and said: 'We all love you here.'
Also at the event were the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle.
The awards recognise outstanding achievements by UK firms in the categories of innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting opportunity through social mobility.
They are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, with recipients recognised as being among the best of British businesses.
Some 197 businesses received awards across the four categories and can now use The King's Awards emblem for the next five years on their products and to promote their services.
The viral cuddly toys company Jellycat was also among the winners, with production director Jack Gatacre describing the reward as 'a great honour'.
'We're very happy that people do love our brand,' Mr Gatacre added.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were gifted two Jellycat plushies during a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace last month.
Seeing the toys, which were in the shapes of a pickled onion and a lemon tart, William said: 'These are like gold dust. My children go crazy for these things. This is a children's currency.'
Asked how he felt knowing that George, Louis, and Charlotte love Jellycat plushies, Mr Gatacre said: 'It delights me, it delights everybody at Jellycat that we can make people happy across the world.'
Previously known as The Queen's Award for Enterprise, this is the 59th year of the Awards and the third year recipients received a King's Awards for Enterprise following the scheme's name change.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
When is Love Is Blind UK season 2 part 2 out on Netflix and how many episodes are there?
Love Is Blind UK is making a comeback with real-life couple Emma and Matt Willis returning to host the Netflix dating show. Love Is Blind UK season two once again sees singletons from across the country get ready to enter the pods in a bid to meet 'The One' without seeing them first. From a professional dancer and a dating app founder to a gaming entrepreneur, a nanny and a cafe owner, singles from a range of backgrounds have come together for this next series of Netflix 's Love Is Blind UK. Hosts Emma and Matt Willis return to oversee the proceedings as the 30 singles enter the pods to find a connection and get engaged, all before seeing one another for the first time. But when they do lay eyes on one another, will it be instant sparks or will it be the start of an upward battle before deciding whether to say 'I do'. When is Love Is Blind UK season 2 part 2 out? Love Is Blind UK season two premieres on Wednesday, August 13, with the first four episodes released for subscribers to enjoy. Thankfully, the wait isn't too long before the hit dating show returns for its next batch of episodes. Love Is Blind UK season two part two will be released the following week on Wednesday, August 20, on Netflix. These episodes are expected to follow what happens after everyone meets in the pods and the couples get to know each other in the real world. Love Is Blind UK season 2 episode count Love Is Blind UK season two is going to consist of 10 episodes in total, making it slightly shorter than last year's 12-episode run. The remaining two episodes are going to be dropped on Netflix, the next week on Wednesday, August 27. Speaking about the new series, Emma told Metro: 'Last year, we were quite nervous. 'This year, we were much more relaxed. ''We really wanted the UK one to be as good as all of the others and I think it surpassed our expectations, because it had everything. 'It had heart, it had a very British sense of humour.' She then added: 'The one thing I've taken [from hosting the show] – and it's not so much a reflection on our relationship, but a reflection on the world of dating generally – is, I'm really glad I'm not single.'
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Sabrina Ghayour: ‘We all have less time, we all have less money, we all have people to feed'
British-Iranian chef Sabrina Ghayour reckons many Persian dishes can be made much simpler for the home cooks. 'Lots of stuff is just shrouded in tradition, and tradition can go back generations to when they didn't have electricity or didn't have commercial cleaning of food. So, why is it essential to have four pots on the stove for a Persian stew? No, I've done it all in one pot and it works.' The 49-year-old, who shot to critical acclaim with her debut cookbook Persiana in 2014 and has since published seven more, adds: 'Auntie would say, 'I'm telling you, I've been doing this for 45 years'. You get told by your mother you cannot do this any other way and then someone like me comes along, who is a bit lazy and loves a shortcut. Advertisement 'I'm thinking, 'Why can't you do it this way? Screw it, we'll try it'. That's how a lot of my Persian and traditional recipes are perfected. 'I know what changes I can make and which would compromise flavour and which wouldn't, so I'm thinking, let's make it easier. We don't need to soak rice 500 times.' Her latest cookbook, Persiana Easy, sticks to the Persian food we know and love her for (think brunch kuku, mutton raan and polow), alongside dishes from near and not so near regions, like Lebanese Hashweh next to Pakistani-style Biryani, Indian smashed crispy potato chaat and Egyptian koshari. But this time, stripped back and simpler. Photo: Kris Kirkham. Ghayour's food is often cited as Middle Eastern, but the term doesn't always feel right to her. 'It's not that I don't like it, it's just a bit broad. It's like calling English food European,' she suggests. 'I just think sometimes we generalise it and go, yeah, the Middle East. Because idiots like me cook recipes from Morocco and Turkey, and then they get batched in with my books. Of course, neither of them are in the Middle East.' Advertisement Her recipe ideas do derive from far and wide though; 'My uncle's Pakistani, my other uncle is Afghani – I grew up with all influences… [and] there's a lot of Persian influence in lots of other countries, we got around, the Persian empire.' Self-taught from the age of five ('My mum can't cook at all, no one taught me, I just watched telly') Ghayour grew up trying things out in the kitchen, eventually launching 'Sabrina's Kitchen' supper clubs from her London flat, and is now a regular on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen as well as Channel 4's Sunday Brunch. The fact that she's a home cook, rather than a professional restaurant chef, isn't a disadvantage though, she says. 'You're providing value from what you're asking [cookbook readers] to buy, if they don't already have it – that's because I'm a home cook, so when I do recipe tests that I'm staring at in my kitchen, and I realise that's actually not a weakness, that's a strength. I'm always using the same things in my kitchen. So that's kind of given me confidence.' Advertisement (Kris Kirkham/PA) She's 'not afraid' to use the same store cupboard ingredients over and again. 'Sometimes you'll have recipes of mine that will maybe have, let's say, eight ingredients, but six of them are the same. The key ingredient and something else is different, they taste totally different to one another,' she says. 'I used to think that made me a bit of a charlatan or an imposter, and then I realised, actually that's really good because people [at home] are using the same ingredients. So you're asking them to buy and they're using them up.' The most important things are probably already in your pantry anyway, including; good sea salt ('Good salt makes everything taste good in the absence of any other spice') pepper ('a very key spice – I use it as more than just a seasoning'), chilli flakes, oregano, garlic granules and curry powder, she suggests. 'In God's honest truth, most of the Persian and Middle Eastern ingredients are readily available in supermarkets – and yes, in the last 10 years, pomegranate molasses, sumac, and all these things have been added to that.' Now based in York, Ghayour tied the knot in 2021 and became part of a bigger family. 'After Covid and getting married and now a stepmum, life has changed. Advertisement 'I literally cook every single day, I cook three meals every day. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sabrina Ghayour-Lynn (@sabrinaghayour) 'We all have less time, we all have less money, we all have people to feed – there's so many reasons to keep things pared-down as much as possible. I'm certainly more pared-down [rather] than hunting after the authentic version of something.' So many of her recipes are easier versions of classics, while others are entirely made up – take the hummus soup, for example. 'I'm always trying to come up with soups because we're a big soup house, especially my mother and mother-in-law, they live off soup. 'I think any cuisine that you haven't done before, people will perceive to be difficult to make,' Ghayour says, but her aim is to provide a calming voice in the kitchen. 'Because cooking is confidence. It's not even about the food, it's about how straightforward was it for me to convey my recipe to you? Calm you down in the process, tell you there's nothing to worry about, you don't need to do this, you don't need to do that. It's fine.' Advertisement 'I've purposely written that calm into every intro in all of my books.' Photo: Mitchell Beazley/PA.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Liverpool's Alexander Isak transfer would break record for most expensive club spend EVER
Liverpool remain keen on Alexander Isak but any deal for the Newcastle striker would need to break transfer records and mean the Reds have spent more than any club in history across a single window Liverpool will eclipse the most expensive summer spend by any club in history if they secure a move for Alexander Isak - which would see their outlay eclipse the £400million mark. Any move for the Newcastle forward would also likely see them break the British transfer record for the second time in a matter of months having done so when they signed Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen - landing the German for £116m. Arne Slot has been aggressive in pursuing new talent in an effort to keep Liverpool at the summit of English football. After their Premier League triumph the Merseyside have bolstered their frontline and their backline. Jeremie Frimpong, like Wirtz, swapped Leverkusen for Liverpool in a deal worth £29.5m. Milos Kerkez's impressive season saw him land a move from Bournemouth for £40m and Liverpool have also addressed their No 9 problem with the signing of Hugo Ekitike. He joined from Frankfurt in a £79m deal. It all means Liverpool's spending sits at £289m - once Giorgi Mamardashvili's signing is also factored in - with Isak potentially increasing that total exponentially. That would almost certainly see the Reds surpass Chelsea's barely believable spend of £404m two summers ago that saw them add the likes of Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. Liverpool have gone from spending almost nothing last summer to potentially breaking records this summer. Slot landed the Premier League title in his first campaign, a major achievement, but some criticised the manner of their cups exits and Champions League loss to PSG. The Dutch manager has been keen to play down their spend, citing the money they've recouped and the gaps they've had to fill. Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have both left for more than £100m, which has left holes in the frontline, and Jarell Quansah has also sought pastures new. Quansah's departure means the champions are also looking at new central defenders, with talks underway to sign Crystal Palace skipper Marc Guehi and youngster Giovanni Leoni. Liverpool's summer spending does increase competition, which wasn't always the case last year with Slot using a very small pool of players to start games. Only 10 outfield players started a minimum of 25 games with others - the likes of Harvey Elliott - largely resigned to substitute roles. The potential addition of Isak, who Newcastle value in the region of £150m, but maintain won't be sold, would likely leave new signing Ekitike having to find a new position or drop out of the starting XI all together. Carragher's issue Jamie Carragher is among those to voice concern with the club's recruitment drive and claimed it "doesn't feel like the Liverpool way of doing things". The Reds have previously seen the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City attack the market, whilst they have attempted to take a slightly more measured approach. But now their former player turned pundit is stunned - and not a fan of the idea that they would spend nearly £80m on a striker only to have him as a back-up to a more expensive signing. He said on the Overlap: 'He (Isak) will be an amazing signing but from a fan's point of view for myself, I don't want Liverpool to spend £150m on Isak. There's something about Liverpool buying another striker (Ekitike), and he's backup. Something about it doesn't feel right to me. 'I look at Isak, and he's obviously thrown his toys out the pram once Arsenal signed a striker and Liverpool signed a striker. It feels a bit messy to me now. "For me, when I think of Liverpool, it doesn't look really planned. I don't think the plan is to buy a striker for £80M, and then be looking to buy another one for £120m. In terms of what Liverpool have done in the summer by bringing in players, they've spent a lot of money and it doesn't feel like the Liverpool way of doing things so much.'
