The Modern Artisan
You know, it’s so funny. Now that people know I write a blog about fashion and sustainability, everyone constantly sends me sources saying, “Look at this! It’s fashion and sustainability!” I absolutely love it – keep ‘em coming! That being said, today’s topic was brought to my attention more than once.
On the Thursday, November 11th episode of the Today Show, a segment focused on Prince Charles’s new sustainable fashion collection. When it came on, my mom shouted, “McGee! Come here fast! They’re talking about sustainable fashion on the Today Show!” Prince Charles, and the Prince’s Foundation, partnered with Yoox Net-a-Porter to bring together a group of students from Italy and the United Kingdom to create the capsule collection, The Modern Artisan (Tashjian, 2020). The students came from Italy’s Politecnico di Milano design school and artisans working out of the Prince’s Foundation’s headquarters in Scotland.
Prince Charles at the Dumfries House in September 2020. Image courtesy of GQ.
As stated by Jacqueline Farrell, the education director at the Prince’s Foundation:
The goal was to help the 10 participants become “aware that sewing is an art form and a craft in itself…There’s a lot of commitment required to produce and teach that – and the time that goes into making something that is beautiful and heritage.” (para. 4)
On top of that, all the pieces in the collection are sustainable. Designed in Italy and manufactured in Scotland, the students used customer insights and E-commerce data to produce a capsule collection made of naturally sourced materials from local luxury fabric producers (“Designed in Italy, Made in the UK,” 2020, para. 1). Farrell explained, “The goal with this project…is to get consumers to think about fashion the way they might already think about their meals: from farm (that’d be the design phase) to table (Prince Charles, or you, tying the drawstring in a neat little bow” (Tashjian, 2020, para. 8). The production of a luxury garment is a time-consuming process; consumers rarely think about all the stages that come before the finished, beautifully packaged piece.
Menswear pieces from The Modern Artisan collection.
One of the most interesting parts of this collection is the inclusion of QR codes on each piece. When consumers scan these QR codes, it “shares the history of each product and its makers, and offers recommendations for care and mending” (para. 9). Before you go rushing to add these pieces to your shopping cart, keep in mind that the prices of these garments are truly Royalty-level prices. Just remember that the idea behind sustainably luxury is that the quality is reflected in the prices. Tashjian (2020) explained, “The argument is familiar from the food world: good stuff needs to cost more than we’ve been conditioned to believe” (para. 7). If Prince Charles is going to wear it then it must be high quality!
Check out this video about The Modern Artisan collection to learn more.
Bye for now,
McGee