Princess Anne wrapped up her three-day tour of Sri Lanka a week ago, last Friday. I was trying to keep up with all of her events, and I would not be surprised if she knocked out something like 25 individual events, meetings and appearances in three days. She was practically sprinting through Sri Lanka. For the most part, Anne’s tours do not make much news, but this Sri Lankan tour was a bit different. First, Anne was praised for seeming so down-to-earth, and she even carried her own bags off the plane. Secondly, Anne gave a couple of interviews while she was in the country, and she even spoke about one somewhat hot-button issue: fast fashion. If anyone can speak about this, it’s probably the woman who still wears decades-old coats, hats, suits, shoes and sunglasses.
Princess Anne criticised fast fashion while sporting 10-year-old sunglasses in Sri Lanka this week. In an interview that concluded her three-day visit, the Princess Royal voiced her opposition to fast fashion and said it could be time to go back to more conventional manufacturing techniques.
Earlier this week, the princess made a trip to Colombo at the MAS Active facility, which has been producing lingerie for Marks & Spencer for 30 years. Remarking on the “ubiquitous T-shirt which was churned out in millions”, Princess Anne said: “What do you do with them next? Nobody really thought that one through and they are going to have to think about that sort of thing in the future. You think about how much is going into landfill.”
The princess is President of the UK Fashion and Textile Association. Princess Anne pondered whether a return to traditional processes of manufacturing clothes might be the solution. She added: “You go through the phase when fashion was very structured and people followed fashion, but you had tailors and dressmakers who absolutely fundamentally made that, but you could also alter it because they had the skills to do so. Now you’ve got instant fashion which you then throw away, you don’t alter it because it wouldn’t be worthwhile. So whether we’ve got to relearn those skills, go back and say ‘actually, we need materials that can do more than one evolution of fashion.’”
While in Sri Lanka, the princess, who is also the head of the British Olympic Association, was never without her Team GB Adidas sunglasses. They were given to her by the British cycling team during the 2012 London Olympics, which she has worn for the last 12 years.
Well, at least I got an explanation for Anne’s sunglasses. It’s kind of cool that she still wears them, although I wish someone would get her a more flattering pair. As for her comments on fast fashion… I did a double-take, because this is one of King Charles’s big issues too. He’s been talking about this for years, but from a different direction – his interest is in the preservation of artisanal crafts and unique trades involving tailoring, fabric-making, etc. Anne is coming from the direction of: it’s a huge waste to make all of these clothes which only last a year, if that. Say what you will, but Anne and Charles are not wrong in this very narrow issue.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
