Introducing the School’s exclusive centenary clothing collection
We are pleased to release a limited-edition centenary clothing collection, now available online and in store at Upper School and White Lodge, to celebrate our 100th anniversary.
With the warmer sunshine coming out and the days getting longer, March is the perfect time to refresh your wardrobe with our eye-catching designs. Featuring stunning photos of our students by Robbie Lawrence and Pierre Tappon, springtime floral colours and bold, sleek branding, step out in style with your favourite Royal Ballet School branded top.
Digital Marketing Executive Eleanor Monk led the design and production process behind this product range and shared the inspiration and decisions she made to bring the collection to life.
At the barre centenary oversized t-shirt
This white t-shirt is anything but plain. It is business in the front with our official 100 years logo, while the back features a stunning black and white photo that provides an exclusive glimpse into our Floral Street studios as our students warm up at the barre.
Following his work at the Paris Olympics for TIME, photographer Robbie Lawrence was commissioned by the School to capture student life, from the studio to the stage and everything in between, in the lead up to and during our centenary year.
We wanted to incorporate some of Robbie’s amazing images into the clothing range. We particularly liked this studio image as the portrait orientation lent itself well to a t-shirt design. It’s also a very eye-catching image as it draws the viewer behind the scenes and into our studios to a place where all dancers start their day – at the barre.
As is the trend these days, we also wanted to try a more oversized t-shirt fit. The centenary year is a great chance for us to try new things and branch out from our usual styles.
Adult centenary t-shirts
Channel sleek, simple style with this understated take on centenary pride. Let the words speak for themselves: this is 100 years of nurturing the next generation of world-class artists.
At this point in the design process, we had landed on several picture-based designs, so we felt it would be good to also have more clean, minimalist options for those who prefer to be a bit more subtle in their clothing choices.
This is a regular fit t-shirt with our full logo on the front and our centenary tagline ‘This is 100 years’ vertically down the back, which also ties in with the classic sweatshirt sleeve print.
Tutu centenary cropped sweatshirt
Channel the grit and elegance of a dancer in rehearsal with this cropped sweatshirt, a stylish cut that elongates your lines and keeps you warm in the studio and beyond.
Our past sweatshirts have had a regular fit, but we wanted to do something different for this range. We received samples of different fits from our supplier and discussed what we liked as a team. We all liked the cropped style the best and felt it was different to the styles we already have.
The back features another photograph by Robbie Lawrence from when he came in to watch students in rehearsal at the end of last year. A tutu is obviously synonymous with ballet to the general public, but this striking image of one of our students in the studio also represents the focus and dedication our students apply to their training every day.
This is 100 years sweatshirt
A classic sweatshirt with a twist: a bold sleeve to port de bras in style. Choose between classic black to pair effortlessly with any outfit or add a classy pop of colour with the rich burgundy option.
We kept the same fit as our existing sweatshirts because we felt that the cropped sweatshirt we loved was a more feminine style, and we wanted this to be more unisex.
We have ‘This is 100 years’ printed down the right sleeve, which is the centenary campaign tagline. We have never done this style before, but it stands out really well.
You can’t go wrong with a black sweatshirt, but we also added a burgundy option, which has been very popular so far.
Children’s performance t-shirts
The children’s performance t-shirt range is colourful and aspirational. Featuring two images of our students in The Sleeping Beauty for our 2025 Summer Performances photoshoot by Pierre Tappon, these tees add some magic to your wardrobe.
First, we have the female student in one of the The Sleeping Beauty fairy costumes in the mint green colourway. We thought this colour tied in really nicely with the colours of the costume in the image, and it’s also a very different design to the rest of the range. We included our ‘This is 100 years’ tagline on the back to tie into the overall campaign.
For the black t-shirt, we had male students in mind, but anybody is welcome to wear any style. We wanted to make sure that we had styles that appealed to everybody. We really love this image of our student as the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty. The silhouette is really striking, and we thought it would look great on a black t-shirt. This shirt has been really popular so far at in-person events at the School, and even adults have purchased it for themselves.
The design of these t-shirts was primarily led by the images themselves, and in the process we put lots of different options together. We had many, many mockups that we loved, so we reached out to our Junior and Mid Associates to be a focus group. We put together a few different options of color combinations, pictures, no pictures, etc and let the Associates tell us what they liked best.
The Associates were very enthusiastic during this process, and, with their teachers’ assistance, went through each design and voted on their favourites. We consulted their answers as a team to determine which colours they liked and which images resonated most with them, resulting in these two versions.
It felt important to get input from our main audiences for the children’s range. Students were consulted on the designs when we created our previous dancewear range, but we haven’t designed as many new products until now. It’s really great to get our students’ input. We have done surveys with our Associate students before for products that they wanted to see, which ultimately led to the release of more Associate products like backpacks and clothing. Because even though these students are spread across the UK, they are still a very big part of the School, so it’s nice to be able to include them in our design conversations and release products that they can say they helped bring to life.
The Associate Programme is integral to our value of widening access and will be a significant part of our legacy for the next 100 years, so we want our merchandise to make them feel included and part of the School even if they aren’t in our studios every day.
This is 100 years children’s t-shirt in pink
Ballet pink is timeless, just like The Royal Ballet School. A fan favourite and voted number one by our Associate focus groups, this tee is a beautiful way to celebrate our centenary with us.
Similarly to the adult t-shirts, this is a regular fit t-shirt which features our centenary tagline ‘This is 100 years’ horizontally on the back. This horizontal orientation was also a result of the Associate student survey. I think it works better on smaller t-shirts, too. The shirt is available in a pale pink color. Every single Associate focus group voted that they liked the pink colour the most.
This is 100 years children’s sweatshirt
This unisex sweatshirt is as blue as the sky above the Bridge of Aspiration and fills the wearer with creativity and inspiration. Say goodbye to the winter blues and hello to this gorgeous sweatshirt. It’s flying off the shelves – even our adult customers want one!
When we were designing the children’s sweatshirt, we already had the two t-shirts with the back prints finalised, so we knew what colours we were working with. We wanted to tie everything together with the pastel shades. We liked the mint green t-shirt with the pale pinks in the tutu. We landed on the sky blue to complement those shades.
