In Conversation With: Beatrice & Clement, Founders of Vigour & Skills
Cotswold locals Clement and Beatrice wanted to find a way to showcase the work of their neighbouring creative communities, to celebrate their craftsmanship and help to share their stories with customers across the country. Beatrice, Co-founder of Vigour & Skills, shares the story of their platform and their mission “to re-shape how we shop, with a focus on sustainability, storytelling, and craftsmanship.”
Can you tell us a little bit about the story of Vigour and Skills?
V+S was born from desire to tell the story of the people behind your purchase. Craftsmanship is thriving with incredible talent who all support local business and are spearheading the movement to pay attention to how we shop with a focus on sustainability, storytelling and craftsmanship.
What was your story before Vigour and Skills?
We both came from fashion and events – Beatrice as PR and Marketing consultant for young fashion brands and Clement as an events and back stage photographer across music and fashion. Clement did work at Louis Vuitton in retail for a number of years and this is where he learned about the importance of heritage and craftsmanship in luxury products and how vital it is to know the story behind a product.
How has your experience in the fashion industry shaped your view of production?
I watched a lot of young designers with important messages and visions that celebrated heritage and traditions. We all felt at times swept away with the sheer speed and urgency of how they were supposed to work and design and ultimately produce their collections. With that came immeasurable conflict with the environment and sustainable issues and again their creative ideas – The designers that understood the impact of building relationships with long term customers realised this happens with more made to order and custom made pieces by creating collections that lasted forever .
How do you choose your makers?
Our makers are mostly found through social media, markets and word of mouth – our main criteria are that collections are made her in the UK, mostly by hand unless machinery is needed – production is limited and most pieces are made to order and most of all that the makers are happy to share their creative story with us.
Can you tell us a little bit about the philanthropic side of Vigour & Skills?
When we decided to launch Vigour and Skills we knew we wanted to shine a light on small business and the knowledge that we have so much on our door step and talent, over flowing all over the country. We felt immediately the importance of putting back into your community what you take out and with that we joined forces with the incredible Amber Foundation who work tirelessly to support vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to transform their own lives by helping them move out of homelessness and unemployment.
What boxes do you makers and brands need to tick to be on your platform?
Our makers are incredibly passionate about their craft. A love of craftsmanship and community – they must believe in our mission to create a space of support and knowledge through story telling as much as we do. All collections we showcase from our makers are made here in the UK and as much as we can we like them to source their materials here in the UK.
Sustainability is at the heart of Thyme, what does it mean to Vigour & Skills?
Sustainability and the tone around it is constantly evolving and at times can leave you feeling like you are many steps behind what’s good for the environment. We hope that we can inspire that small steps are instrumental to creating a more environmentally conscious behaviour from all of us – we are constantly learning through our makers of all the immense and hugely rewarding steps they have taken to create sustainable collections and all we can do is keep working hard at doing what we know is best for the world we live in and grow from there
