When Huit Denim launches their new women’s jeans line in April, someone will purchase a pair that the Princess of Wales worked on during a visit to their factory.
Catherine traveled through West Wales to spotlight textiles manufacturers on Tuesday, and her final stop was in Cardigan to visit the sustainable Hiut Denim jean company and learn about their sustainable practices and premium-quality products.
The company focuses on training local artisans and creating sustainable denim, and according to Kensington Palace, the company offers both free jeans for life and a take-back programme where old and unwanted jeans are turned into repaired jeans and resold.
Catherine met with Hiut Denim’s chief executive officer, Johann Von Loeper, upon arrival to learn how the company is bringing back jean production to a town that was renowned for it for four decades before production left the town. In its heyday, Cardigan was producing 35,000 pairs of jeans each week and employed 400 artisans before all production moved offshore.
Hiut Denim opened in 2011 and restarted the tradition of jean-making. In a blog post shared on Hiut Denim’s website, Von Loeper wrote that the visit felt like special recognition for their work, “something we have always said is at the heart of Hiut; a commitment to craft and to keeping the skills of British textiles and design alive.”
Von Loeper walked Catherine through every step of jean manufacturing, from design to cutting to sewing. At the cutting table, the future queen met Claudio, a cutter with over 60 years of experience who is training workers who started one month ago. He guided her through some of the qualities of cutting that he has become an expert in and let the royal cut her own straight-leg jeans for a new design Hiut Denim is launching in April.
According to Von Loeper, “The princess did an expert job under the supervision of Claudio and lucky for her, it passed quality control and will actually form a part of one of our Jeans.”
Catherine revealed that she’s tried cutting her own clothes before, but that she hasn’t been that adventurous in the past, telling Claudio, “The most adventurous I got was making a pair of pyjamas, and I don’t know where they have gone now.”
Catherine then moved on to the sewing room where she met one of its longest-standing employees and three trainees who are just starting out in denim manufacturing. She sewed a pocket that later wound up on a pair of men’s jeans gifted to Prince William, which she promised he would love.
Summing up Catherine’s visit, Von Loeper wrote, “As the owner of Hiut, the day left me immensely proud. Proud of the team, proud of the idea that skills can be passed down, and glad that someone in a position to champion British textiles and fashion brands could see, up close, what we do and why it matters. The visit was a reminder that the way we make things shapes the world we live in.”
Kensington Royal shared on its own social media: “Meeting the team at Huit Denim to learn about their design process, production journey and commitment to sustainability.
“From pattern cutting to sewing and repair, their ethos of buying less and buying better shows how skill, creativity and responsibility can sit side by side.”
