Thanks to Prince Charles, Designer Becomes Jeweler to the Princess and the Queen

The prince’s charitable trust kickstarted her career.

Before Elizabeth Galton became the creative director of Mappin & Webb – a favorite jewelry maker of Princess Kate Middleton and Queen Elizabeth – she was trying to break in as a young designer but lacked the financial resources to do so, People writes. The article says that Galton turned to Prince Charles’ charity, the Royal Trust, for seed money to start her own venture. The grant she received allowed her to set up a “very modest” workshop in her father’s garden shed and also study at a botanical garden in South Africa. “A lot of my earlier work for my own brand was focused around orchids. Without having had that award, it would have been very difficult,” she says.

Read more at People