Prince’s Foundation collaborates on luxury clothing collection

Prince’s Foundation collaborates on luxury clothing collection

The Prince of Wales’s charity The Prince’s Foundation is collaborating with global online fashion retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter to create a luxury capsule menswear and womenswear collection.

The Modern Artisan project is giving students from the UK and Italy the chance to design and craft the sustainable line of outfits as part of a new textiles skills training initiative.

Launching next year, the collection will be sold across all four of the firm’s brands – Yoox, Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and The Outnet – with profits donated to The Prince’s Foundation.

Six Italian students from Politecnico di Milano will design the collection, while The Prince’s Foundation will work with six graduates from the UK, who will take part in a specially designed four-month training course in luxury small batch production skills at Dumfries House in Scotland.

Charles was pictured with the students at Dumfries House and Yoox Net-A-Porter chairman Federico Marchetti to mark the unveiling of the concept.

Charles and Federico Marchetti
Charles surrounded by tartan fabric with Federico Marchetti at Dumfries House (Mike Wilkinson/PA)

Charles himself is known for his sartorial style, and was previously voted one of GQ’s Best Dressed Men, as well as also claiming the title in Esquire magazine.

He has entrusted his tailoring to Anderson & Sheppard for several decades, reportedly because he prefers the “soft drape” of the Savile Row institution.

True to his sustainable fashion roots, for his wedding to Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005, the prince wore a suit that had been made by Anderson & Sheppard 13 years earlier.

Charles's wedding day
The Prince of Wales in his Anderson & Shepperd suit on his wedding day (Toby Melville/PA)

“Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, so we are proud to have partnered with Yoox Net-A-Porter group to deliver this truly innovative training programme,” she said.

Mr Marchetti said: “Designed in Italy and crafted in the UK, the Modern Artisan collection will be an important expression of how talent and technology can work across boundaries and borders.”

He added that the project will also focus on fusing “traditional craft with digitally-infused creativity – and, importantly, to do so sustainably, following the example of HRH The Prince of Wales, who has dedicated the last 40 years to building a more sustainable future.”

Meeting in cultural exchanges both in Milan and in Scotland, the trainee artisans will collaborate on product development from the design stage through to final samples.

The collection will be launched in mid-2020.

In September, the Duchess of Sussex unveiled her Smart Set capsule clothing range, created by Jigsaw, John Lewis & Partners, Marks & Spencer and her designer friend Misha Nonoo, in aid of the Smart Works charity.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –