The Royal Ballet School is a world-renowned British dance school that offers exceptional classical ballet training for young, talented dancers. Fans of the School are often delighted to discover its online shop, which offers a range of official merchandise. From stylish and practical clothing and equipment — including a lifestyle and activewear range — to commemorative items — such as accessories, books, and Christmas gifts — shoppers will find a wide selection of items to choose from.
The online shop provides a great way for audiences, family, and friends of students to remain connected to the School and show their support for young ballet talent.
What Items Are Available?
For those wishing to represent their passion for the School through their fashion, the online shop offers a curated selection of clothing items, embellished with dynamic designs developed from the School crest. These include the new “Spring Intensive” shirts and hoodies for 2022, which are available in black, white, lavender, and pale blue; unisex sweatshirts and hoodies for adults and children; and fun logo t-shirts for all ages.
Those wishing to exercise in similar ways to Royal Ballet School students can purchase high-quality, official equipment such as a mini resistance band, gym ball, massage roller, and mat, as well as water bottles and small or large towels. These are the same top-quality products that staff and students of the School use.
The shop offers a number of playful and useful accessories, such as a canvas cosmetic bag, the popular “Strength and Grace” tote bag (which is made from premium, heavyweight Fairtrade and GOTS organic cotton), keyrings, phone grips, notebooks, and branded enamel pins in various colours. Shoppers can also bring the magic of The Royal Ballet School home with home and kitchenware like tea towels, fridge magnets, coasters, and mugs sporting striking White Lodge, Bridge of Aspiration, and logo designs. Prints and postcards are also available.
Anna Pavlova: Twentieth Century Ballerina and Ballet With Heart
The School also offers two books in its online shop. One is a beautiful coffee table book, Anna Pavlova: Twentieth Century Ballerina, and the other is a touching and inspiring children’s book by Emily Joof, Ballet with Heart.
Ballet with Heart is a delightful, illustrated story that highlights the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion in ballet. Frustrated by the lack of diverse representation in children’s books, Joof launched her publishing company, Mbife , to produce stories that celebrate all children.
Drawing inspiration from her son and daughter’s adventures in ballet, Joof wrote Ballet with Heart as an uplifting story that proves ballet and classical dance are for everyone, no matter their gender, race, or ability. The book also features British-Chinese ballerina Gina Tse, an alumna of The Royal Ballet School and a celebrated Royal Swedish Ballet performer.
The Royal Ballet School’s Christmas Range
Available from the online shop year-round, The Royal Ballet School adds a touch of ballet magic to Christmas with two exclusive card designs and a beautiful glass bauble.
Independent London artist Michelle, of Njeri Illustrated, is the creator of the two Christmas cards, which celebrate both Upper School and White Lodge students and are available in packs of six with envelopes. One card features a snowy scene on Floral Street with the Christmas lights of Covent Garden shining over Upper School students. The iconic Bridge of Aspiration, the passage linking the School to the Royal Opera House, is prominent in the background. The other card depicts students in Years 7 to 11 enjoying a snowball fight in the White Lodge grounds in Richmond Park.
Njeri Illustrated, which creates quality, custom-designed products featuring local city scenes, took inspiration from one of the school nurse’s photographs that captured the joys of a snowy January day to create these cards. This event was particularly special for some of the School’s international students, who had never seen snow before.
The online shop also stocks the perfect addition to any ballet lover’s Christmas tree, the official Royal Ballet School bauble. This bauble features the School logo and a gold silhouette of two alumni, Hanna Park and Davi Ramos, dancing a pas de deux from the classic ballet Paquita. Park is now a dancer at the Royal Opera House, and Ramos dances with the Dutch National Ballet.
Partridge Peartree, suppliers of the quality ornament, adhere to strict ethical, environmental, and carbon reduction policies to build a culture of openness, integrity, and social responsibility. Each bauble measures 70mm in width.
Ethical and Sustainable Products
Wherever possible, The Royal Ballet School sources products from suppliers with strong sustainable and ethical credentials to ensure the School offers high-quality products that not only look great but also feel great to buy and own.
A.M. Custom Clothing, Temple Island, and BIDBI
The School’s stylish branded clothing comes from A.M. Custom Clothing, a wholesale provider of printed and embroidered garments that has built its business on sustainability. A.M. Custom Clothing launched in 2012 in Chester, the first Fairtrade City in the world to also obtain Sustainable Palm Oil City status. A.M. Clothing was the first UK print and embroidery company to introduce Neutral® Fairtrade Clothing, products manufactured to the world’s highest environmental, ethical, and social standards. Sustainability runs throughout its supply chain, from raw materials, shipping, and marketing to the end product.
Additional product suppliers include Temple Island and BIDBI (Bag It Don’t Bin It), both SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) accredited companies that create products in a way that respects workers and the planet.
Mosaic
A green mindset extends to how the School’s products travel from the online shop to consumers. Mosaic, its distribution partner, factors in environmental responsibility at every step of the customer journey, including using biodegradable packaging and championing the reduction of packaging “void fill”, empty parcel space typically filled with packing paper.
Mosaic selects delivery partners with a commitment to environmental responsibility such as Royal Mail and Parcelforce, early adopters of the Carbon Trust Standard. The distribution warehouse has 400 solar panels on its roof and supports a 28-acre wildlife reserve, 12,000 trees, and 25 acres of wildflower meadows.
Dansez: Environmentally Responsible Dancewear
Included in the School’s environmentally conscious ethos for merchandise is its range of dance and activewear. Developed in collaboration with leading brand Dansez, the collection includes two sleek leotard designs, shorts for women and men, tights and top for men, and a unisex jacket, all designed exclusively for The Royal Ballet School. All the pieces are black, featuring the School’s logo and blazing accents of its trademark gold colour.
Dansez has been a British designer and manufacturer of sustainable dance clothing for 45 years and has worked closely with the School’s students to understand their dancewear requirements. From comfort and ease of movement to fabrics and style, Dansez ensures every aspect of the clothing is of the highest possible quality. Alongside Dansez, Brandon Lawrence, an alum of the School, helped design the initial sample pieces that students tested and gave feedback on, before sending the garments for final alterations to achieve the perfected products now on sale.
Through feedback and focus groups, the School’s students made it clear that it was important to them that their clothing was sustainably made. All Dansez products are handmade in the company’s UK studio. Dansez was the first British dancewear producer to use ECONYL®, a regenerated textile created from abandoned fishing nets, pulled from oceans by the Healthy Seas Initiative, and nylon waste. The resulting fibre is infinitely recyclable and so actively reduces the environmental impact of the fashion industry. The Royal Ballet School dancewear range combines ECONYL® with the highest quality Italian fabrics.
Browse The Royal Ballet School’s online shop.
About The Royal Ballet School
Since its founding in 1926, The Royal Ballet School has inspired and taught numerous students, some of whom have gone on to become dance and choreography stars of international acclaim, such as Margot Fonteyn, Darcey Bussell, Brandon Lawrence, Marcelino Sambé, and Christopher Wheeldon.
The School’s mission is not only to prepare students for futures with such leading companies as The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, but also to ensure students grow into well-rounded, healthy, and happy professional dancers and choreographers. It achieves this through its student-focused approach to education, which involves teaching a wide range of dance styles alongside a broad academic curriculum and providing students with access to a specialist healthcare team who work to protect students’ physical and mental health.
