Prince Charles urges consumers to end 'extraordinary
trend for throwaway fashion'
The Prince has set up a repair clinic to mend clothes
and is attempting to rally the public into supporting sustainable fashion
By
Robert
Mendick,
CHIEF REPORTER
4 November
2020 • 10:00pm
The Prince
of Wales may seem like an unlikely fashion guru, but he has waded into a domain
normally inhabited by duchesses and princesses to urge consumers to end “this
extraordinary trend of throwaway clothing”.
In an interview with the editor of the British Vogue magazine, Prince Charles has issued a rallying cry for sustainable fashion in which timeless classics can be mended and repaired and worn for years. When asked about his own “sense of style”, the Prince compared himself to “a stopped clock” that told the right time twice a day, suggesting he was accidentally fashionable every now and again.
The Prince,
who is 71, also disclosed that he had set up a repair clinic at Dumfries House,
his Scottish getaway, for people to bring in clothes for mending. Like the
BBC’s popular show, the Repair Shop, the clinic will also mend broken electrical
items and other artefacts.
Prince
Charles said the British fashion textile sector is “of enormous importance” and
told British Vogue’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful of his determination to
revive home-grown, traditional skills of embroidery, sewing, cutting and
tailoring.
“It seems
to me,” said the Prince, “there are huge opportunities, particularly now,
within the whole sustainable fashion sector, to counter this extraordinary
trend of throw-away clothing – or throwaway everything, frankly.”
The comments
will be seen as a sideswipe at cut-price retailers who sell cheap, disposable
clothing made overseas. He urged
consumers to buy British-made fashion that would also be “removing pollution
from supply chains”.
Prince
Charles's interview is the most recent in a long line of Royal collaborations
with Vogue. Editor Mr Enninful is well-known for having collaborated with the
Duchess of Sussex when she guest-edited the magazine in September 2019.
Praised by
Mr Enninful on his fashion style, the Prince said: “I thought I was like a
stopped clock – I’m right twice every 24 hours. But…I’m very glad you think it
has style. I mind about detail and colour combinations. I’m lucky because I can
find marvellous people who are brilliant makers of the things that I
appreciate, and because of that, I try to keep them going for longer.
“I happen
to be one of those people who’d get shoes – or any item of clothing – repaired
if I can, rather than just throw it away. And that’s why I think, from an
economic point of view, there are huge opportunities for people to set up small
businesses involved with repair, maintenance and reuse.
“Which is
one of the reasons I’ve tried at Dumfries House to start a kind of thrift
market for precisely that purpose, where you can bring things in – whether it’s
electrical appliances or anything – to be mended. When I was a child, we used
to take our shoes down to the cobbler in Scotland and would watch with
fascination as he ripped the soles off and then put new soles on.”
Two years
ago, Prince Charles revealed he was still wearing a pair of shoes he first
bought in 1971 and a jacket acquired in 1969.
Through The
Prince’s Foundation, the heir to the throne has set up an ‘atelier’ training
programme – called The Modern Artisan Project – which teaches children and
adults tailoring and dress-making skills that he feared were at risk of dying
out. The project is run at Dumfries House and at a location in east London. The
project’s students are about to launch their first fashion collection “with
commercially viable sustainability at its core”.
The Prince
said: “We’d started a textile training project in high-end fashion and sewing
skills. As you know better than I, these things are in shorter and shorter
supply, because the older generation is coming to the end of their working
lives.”
The December issue of British Vogue is
available via digital download and on newsstands Friday 6 November
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