Natural fibre in fashion for Charles

Wool took a regal turn in 2010, played out near Sherwood Forest where a familiar figure stood up for the many sheep farmers who are struggling to survive.

Prince Charles expressed his sympathy to farmers who he said continued to produce a wonderful natural fibre even though, in recent years, rising costs had taken the profit out of all their hard toil.

He was surprised to have been invited by the editor of Vogue UK to contribute his thoughts on the world of fashion in the publication’s September edition.

In the article, Prince Charles expressed his passion for reusing things and repairing them.

He told Vogue that fashion had a role to play in helping to confront some of the environmental challenges facing the world.

He said it was clear that on every front mankind was over-exploiting nature, saying the more people wasted, the more they had to use irreplaceable natural resources and in doing so, prejudice the lives of future generations.

Prince Charles added that while fashion clearly made people feel good, it now had to do the world good, too, by contributing to the creation of a virtuous cycle, with nature protected at the centre.

He said an excellent example of this was the use of wool for clothing.

Prince Charles said it is natural and renewable, it had a far smaller environmental footprint, was far less flammable than man-made fibres and it was fully recyclable.

His message was directed at today’s designers so that they can be instrumental in making a long-lasting impact on the environment.

Launching the Campaign for Wool earlier in the year, Prince Charles said the key objective of the initiative was to educate consumers on the benefits of wool.

Wool Week was declared in October and taken to London’s Savile Row, where sheep grazed on a turfed-over Mayfair Street.

Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) also timed a return to marketing last year by launching the Woolmark Gold campaign and just recently, the ‘No Finer Feeling’ global fibre educational campaign.

Touted as the largest wool marketing campaign to ever take place in China, Woolmark Gold aims to unite luxury European fabric and tailoring brands under one common banner.

The campaign’s message ‘to dress with wool is to dress with style’ took to the air on The Style Focus, China’s only luxury lifestyle channel.

AWI’s global marketing business development manager Sam Guthrie said China was set to become the world’s largest consumer of luxury goods by 2015.