Prince Charles has launched his first fashion project titled The Modern Artisan, he spoke to British Vogue about it’s conception and his commitment to saving the planet.

How did The Modern Artisan come to fruition? Prince Charles tells Edward Enninful, “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 are coming to the end of their working lives, and not enough attention has been paid – sadly, I’ve always felt – to vocational education.” He says Federico Marchetti helped get the ball rolling, “He came to Dumfries House, saw what we’re doing, we talked further – and that was where the idea came from, to link Italian design students at the Politecnico di Milano with students here in Scotland.”

Modern Artisan students have worked hard to launch a collection called Yoox Net-a-Porter for The Prince’s Foundation. “There are some very beautiful pieces, and I will be interested to see how this collection goes and what the reaction is.”

Prince Charles elaborated on his personal “Buy once, buy well” statute, “I can’t bear any waste, including food waste; I’d much rather find another use. Which is why I’ve been going on for so long about the need for a circular economy, rather than a linear one where you just make, take and throw away – which is a tragedy, because inevitably we over-exploit natural resources that are rapidly depleting.”

Although he would like to continue to wear the same clothing throughout the years… he does joke about having a dad bod, “The difficulty is, as you get older, you tend to change shape, and it’s not so easy to fit into the clothes.”

The next in line to the throne tells British Vogue that he is keen on innovation and constantly looking for unique solutions to enhance sustainable fashion, “There are interesting developments going on, as you know, in innovative materials. I had an interesting conversation with Vin & Omi, the two fashion characters I met at a tea for the Positive Fashion initiative, who have been making textiles out of nettles that they collected at Highgrove. That turns out to be an ancient system of using nettles.”

Read the full British Vogue interview here.

Kinsey Schofield is the Founder of To Di For Daily and you can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.