The Modern Artisan
Discover the first edition of The Modern Artisan
Overview
The Modern Artisan is a unique partnership between YOOX NET-A-PORTER and The Prince’s Foundation, the educational charity established by HRH The Prince of Wales, designed to create a sustainable luxury capsule collection of menswear and womenswear as part of a new training initiative to strengthen textile skills training.
The project has equipped two groups of young artisans with the skills to succeed in today’s fast-paced digital landscape and produce luxury apparel collections to the highest standards. The Anglo-Italian collaboration celebrates the marriage of artisanal textile and data-driven design expertise with high-end sustainable manufacturing at its heart.
The Modern Artisan collection, branded YOOX NET-A-PORTER for The Prince’s Foundation, is sold across all four YOOX NET-A-PORTER brands, in a first as the grand finale of the Group’s 20th anniversary.
The students
The artisans selected by the Politecnico di Milano and The Prince’s Foundation are students and recent graduates at the beginning of their careers or looking to start a new career in the fashion industry.
Throughout the project, the two groups of trainee artisans met in cultural exchanges in Italy and the UK, where they collaborated on the design, manufacturing and production of the Modern Artisan collection.
The project
The Modern Artisan is a unique partnership between YOOX NET-A-PORTER and The Prince’s Foundation designed to inspire the next generation of luxury design and craftmanship talent and define what it means to be a Modern Artisan.
Two specially selected groups of students and recent graduates from the UK and Italy have been supported through the process of designing, manufacturing and bringing to market a sustainable luxury Autumn/Winter capsule collection of menswear and womenswear.
Italian students selected from leading design school, Politecnico di Milano, have designed the collection, drawing inspiration from both the convergence of art and science in the work of Italian polymath Leonardo Da Vinci, in the 500th anniversary year of his death, and the rich heritage of British and Italian textile craftsmanship. The design process, supported by the Politecnico’s Fashion in Process (FiP) research laboratory, was informed by exclusive access to YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP’s extensive data insights to identify long-term customer design preferences.
Meanwhile, The Prince’s Foundation is worked with UK graduates on a specially tailored training course in luxury small batch production skills. This training enabled them to manufacture the collection at Dumfries House in Scotland, where The Prince’s Foundation is headquartered.
The collection will launch 12th November 2020, marking YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP’s 20th anniversary. In a Group first, the collection will be sold across all four YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP brands. All profits from the sale of the collection will be donated to The Prince’s Foundation.
The Modern Artisan project will later be exhibited at the Michelangelo Foundation’s 2021 Homo Faber showcase of craftsmanship.