Dame Kiri Te Kanawa presents prestigious singing award while wearing a $38.50 bedsheet as a skirt

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa presenting the prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2019 in her floral skirt made from a $38.50 bed sheet.

Striding on stage to present the BBC Cardiff Singer of The World award, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was her usual vision of elegance.

In front of a packed audience at St David's Hall in Cardiff and before a global television audience of millions more, she wore a lace blouse and an opulent skirt patterned with hydrangeas.

Look at it! How lovely, how fresh, how very, very summery, many must have thought.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa wore a skirt made from a £19.99 bedsheet that she bought from Zara Home.

The ritzy, chintzy design looked like a classic from Dolce & Gabbana. Or perhaps it was a vintage Liberty print?

Maybe something from the new McQueen range, which has gone big on flower prints this summer?

The truth is that it was none of the above.

To present Ukrainian baritone Andrei Kymach, 31, with the £20,000 ($38,500) prize on Saturday, Dame Kiri wore a skirt made from a £19.99 ($38.50) bedsheet that she bought in Zara Homewares.

The singer claims she had been looking for material featuring a hydrangea when she discovered the sheet set.

"I have been looking for a hydrangea print for years," said Dame Kiri, 75, who is also a passionate gardener.

"And when I saw this sheet, I thought my prayers had been answered."

Her dressmaker turned the single flat sheet, which comes with matching duvet cover and pillowcases, into a full-skirted style edged with blue ribbon and fit for a diva.

Now no one can accuse the great Dame Kiri, who sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana, of looking like an unmade bed, or something that has been dug up. Does it even have matching bloomers? I don't want to know.