Prince joins forces with the royal family of fashion

THE Scottish textile industry is set to be given a boost thanks to an unlikely alliance between Prince Charles and French luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH).

LVMH, which controls fashion houses including Dior, Givenchy and Celine, has sponsored the refurbishment of an unused sawmill on the Dumfries House estate in Ayrshire – which was saved for the nation by the Prince of Wales in 1997 – to transform it into a fashion school.

The Prince’s Foundation will use The LVMH Textile Training Centre to run courses in sewing, weaving and knitting for children, and adults hoping to find jobs in the industry.

Two star appointments have been made to The Prince’s Foundation’s Future Textiles steering group at Dumfries House – designer and Great British Sewing Bee judge, Patrick Grant, and leading Scottish textiles manufacturer and Campbell of Beauly director John Sugden.

The pair will oversee a skills training programme as co-chairs of the group.

Mr Grant said: ‘The manufacture of clothing and textiles has a sustainable future in the UK, but the future of manufacturing will look very different. We will need employees with higher skill levels and greater flexibility than ever before, employees willing to continue to learn throughout their career.

‘We need new solutions to bridge a skills gap created by decades of underinvestment in training.’

Mr Sugden said: ‘British manufacturing, and particularly textiles, is on the up again and the biggest issue that the industry faces is the shortage of skill.’