On Thursday 10th January, 2019 the royal family issued a press release announcing the Patronages of Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. This followed months of speculation and anticipation on what causes the new duchess was going to throw her support behind. Given that she is a known feminist, women’s advocate and had previously been a UN ambassador for women’s political participation and written about menstrual hygiene and girl’s education, it was almost a given that at least one of the patronages will be related to women’s empowerment. When the list of patronages was unveiled, it is safe to say that was the first that many had heard about Smart Works; a charity created in September of 2013 that focuses on equipping long-term unemployed women with interviewing skills, confidence and a professional outfit for interview day.
In response to the announcement, the founder and chairperson of Smart Works, Lady Hughes-Hallet said,
We are thrilled to announce that The Duchess of Sussex will become the Royal Patron of Smart Works. An acknowledged champion of women and their rights worldwide, The Duchess will motivate ever more women to come to our centres and get the job that will transform their lives. The Duchess’s patronage will inspire the women we serve and help them reach for the stars.
These welcome sentiments were echoed by Smart Works CEO Kate Stephens, saying in part,
At Smart Works, we are passionate about helping women be the best that they can be. It is the Smart Works vision that one day we will have enough centres nationwide to reach every woman who needs us. The support of The Duchess of Sussex will help us enormously in achieving this goal.
The announcement was followed a few hours later by the newly minted Royal Patron’s first official visit to the charity, during which she helped to style two clients and sat in on a coaching session. About this visit, royal correspondent and royal editor-at-large @HarpersbazaarUS, Omid Scobie reported that, The Duchess’s first visit to Smart Works was in March of 2018, before the royal wedding, where “Instantly she wanted get stuck in… She’s really good at showing empathy, making the women feel safe and know they’re not going to have anyone’s will imposed upon them. She really fits in and it’s always really fun when she comes, which is a wonderful thing to be able to say,” per lady Hughes-Hallet. Following the initial visit, The Duchess made several private visits to the charity during which she volunteered as a dresser/stylist and interview coach, building a relationship with the leadership and staff that culminated in her assumption of the role of Royal Patron. Needless to say, this partnership was a no-brainer and a perfect fit for Meghan who espouses all the values that this wonderful charity is about.
It would later appear that, The Duchess of Sussex’s visits to Smart Works were not only limited to volunteering but were also an opportunity to observe the operation, learn from it and help to brainstorm solutions for some minor impediments to a smooth operation. A logistic issue with finding the right pieces to create the most professional image that would work for a cross-section of women venturing into a myriad of work opportunities gave birth to the idea of The Smart Set Capsule Collection; a suite of key foundational items of clothing that can be utilized to build a workwear wardrobe that has staying power. About the initiative, the Duchess of Sussex writes in The Smart Set feature in the September issue of British Vogue, of which she was guest-editor,
When you walk into a Smart Works space, you’re met with racks of clothing and an array of bags and shoes. Sometimes, however, it can be a potpourri of mismatched sizes and colors, not always the right stylistic choices or range of sizes. To help with this, I asked Marks & Spencer, John Lewis & Partners, Jigsaw and my friend, the designer Misha Nonoo, if they were willing to design a capsule collection of more classic pieces for a workwear wardrobe. (British Vogue, Sept 2019 pg.276)
The brands agreed to participate and took it a step further. She continues…
…many of the brands agreed to use the one-for-one model: for each item purchased by a customer, one is donated to charity. (British Vogue, Sept 2019 pg.276)
The announcement shared on the SussexRoyal Instagram page was met with applause and eager anticipation and deliver it did!
On Thursday September 12th 2019, almost exactly nine months to the day she was named patron, and in an unmistakable move that said I’m back to business, The Duchess of Sussex, together with Smart Works launched The Smart Set Collection in a splendid event held on the rooftop of John Lewis & Partners’ Oxford Street, London location. Not that she was ever gone; out of sight but very much in OP mode, guest-editing the prestigious September issue of British Vogue( itself an emphatic triumph), preparing for hers and the Duke of Sussexes’ imminent Southern African tour, incubating this new Smart Works baby while caring for her bundle of joy. The launch was a resounding success, attended by clients and representatives of Smart Works, representatives of the collaborating brands and invited media. At the launch which was widely covered by print and electronic media across the globe, from Australia to Africa, Ireland to Asia, Arabia to Canada, The Duchess gave a very heartfelt and engaging speech that chronicled the genesis to completion of the capsule collection.
A stand-out piece of her speech was that about re-framing charity as community. It makes total sense if you think about it. If one views a donation as community, as lending a hand or in the Duchess’ words “a hand held”, then necessarily one must have a stake in the other’s success. The donation ceases to be something we give away and never offer another thought to. The idea of community facilitates the notion of women supporting women and rallying around each other to enable rather than to disable. In the case of the Smart Set collection, even though the buyers may not know who gets their item’s twin, they can root for them from a distance and more importantly by proxy, hold a hand that is close by. That, without a doubt is a powerful message that I imagine resonates with many.
A display of the capsule collection comprising: A dress by courtesy of Marks &Spencer, available in blue or black in regular and plus sizes, A Crisp White Shirt via designer Misha Nonoo, A classic black blazer and black trousers provided by Jigsaw and last but not least, A versatile tote bag, made of the most supple leather in a choice of tan or black, made available by John Lewis and Partners, was on hand for guests to see. The display served as a backdrop for a panel discussion featuring Smart Works clients who shared their experiences with the charity and what an impact it had made for them. All around, it was a glorious day for all involved.
Notably, before the official launch event, the tote bag sold out online and the news was delightfully shared by the Duchess of Sussex. A lot of the sold-out items have since been re-stocked. It’s been a little over a week since the launch, and an update from SussexRoyal noted that through this collaboration, and the generous patronage of supporters, Smart Works now has enough units to outfit clients in their centers for a year! Truly amazing, considering that there is still one week left for people to buy items from the collection, for it to count towards the Smart Works match. So, if you missed opportunity to purchase an item earlier on, there is still time to make your kind contribution. If it’s any help, the reviews on the items delivered have been stellar, from fit to style to quality.
It was particularly clever to have a collaboration between several brands because it makes it easy for a brand to say yes, being a partial ask. Also since the brands each have a different aesthetic, it broadens the appeal of the items to a wide range of buyers and in the same vein, the items will be varied enough to meet with the comfort level of the clients to be outfitted. Afterall a big part of feeling confident in clothes has to do with comfort and what is authentic to one’s style.
The success of this initiative is not by accident. A closer look will reveal certain hallmarks that that seem to guide/inform the Duchess’s work and from which I believe important lessons can be drawn.
First, get to know your audience. As detailed earlier, before there was a patronage, there was an introduction and relationship building. The Duchess got to know the leadership of Smart Works as well as the staff and some clients while she volunteered quietly for several months dating back to before her May 2018 wedding. This relationship building period allowed for two things: The Duchess got to see firsthand if she, along with her talents, would be a good fit for the charity and in what ways she could be of help. Smart Works also got the opportunity to build a relationship with The Duchess at close range, that helps to build a level of trust required for any meaningful partnership. In community programming this is called community engagement. It affords the “outside agent” the chance to learn the norms and practices of the community they aspire to help, an important factor in proposing solutions that are relevant and workable for that particular context. This along with the mutual trust built, goes a long way to secure the buy-in of the community in question for any proposals made.
If we step back to the Together Cookbook, you can see this blueprint at work. The Duchess quietly engaged with the women at the Hubb Community Kitchen, learned what was the impediment to magnifying the impact of their already remarkable effort to feed their community, the resources/assets that were already available within the community(recipes for good food, a group able and willing women, a kitchen that could use some improvement) and how that could all be utilized in a way that advanced their efforts. Several months of hard work later, on September 20th 2018, we saw the official launch of the since wildly successful Cookbook, which became a New York Times bestseller and won an André Simon Food and drink Book Award. Most impressively it has since the launch sold over 130,000 copies (well in excess of the 50,000 target) and raised over £500,000 to date.
Next, Set clearly defined goals. Permit me to once again dip into some programming lingo. SMART goals are not only limited to community programming but any impact oriented enterprise and I’m confident is familiar to many. Goals should be:
- Specific: Nail it down in the clearest most unambiguous way. This way it will be easy to tell if you met the goal or not. In the case of Smart Works, the goal was to add classic pieces of workwear clothing to their inventory and for The Hubb, to raise money so that the kitchen could stay open seven days a week.
- Measurable: This allows the target to be easily quantified and helps track progress. For Smart Works, they needed a specific number of units of classic pieces to serve clients for a year and for Hubb, the wanted to sell 50,000 cookbooks that would yield the amount of money needed to keep the kitchen open.
- Attainable: This is particularly important when you are relying on outside resources to invest in your project. Can we sell enough dresses, shirts, blazers, trousers and totes to meet our goal? Sure. Can we create a cookbook that will sell enough copies to give us the money we need? Check.
- Relevant: The activities being carried out should be relevant to the overall purpose of the project. If we are trying to get more classic pieces, then it makes sense that collection is not focused on trendy/edgy items of clothing and that there is a mechanism that will translate the sale of items into a boost in the Smart Works wardrobe inventory (one-to-one model). Similarly, for the Hubb, some of the activities were renovating the kitchen and training and certifying the women in food hygiene skills, to ensure the safe and smooth provision of food service.
- Time-bound: This I imagine is pretty obvious. It helps to move pieces along to be able to deliver the product in a timely manner.
Please note that the above synopsis is not from the projects in question but my own informed summation, looking globally at the projects and their deliverables. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that, in my estimation at least, these projects are successful because they are carefully considered and designed to deliver recognizable and tangible impact. This impact is important to be able to demonstrate, especially with the upcoming launch of the SussexRoyal foundation. Potential donors and partners can a look to a track record of work, that is strategically designed and implemented to great effect. At the end of the day, when people donate money, time or any other resource to a charitable end, they want to see that resource judiciously utilized properly translated to results. This approach fits very well with community based work, which appears to be a growing focus of House Sussex; Empowering Communities.
A final nugget that I hope can be gleaned is a theme that The Duchess speaks of repeatedly. Come as you are. You are enough just the way you are. Be yourself, everyone else is taken. This is not to say there is no room for improvement and self-development, rather to come as your authentic self. The Duchess of Sussex brought her love of food, knack for writing, experience with a capsule collection and her ability to build relationships to name a few, meet her partners in these successful projects. She gave it time, almost a full pregnancy’s worth. This may have been accidental but nonetheless opportune for this lesson. Whether it was Hubb, British Vogue, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Jigsaw or Mischa Nonoo, she was not afraid to ask. Your passions, achievements, failures: the whole package of your life experience is useful. Just take the time to learn where you can best use it, be prepared to devote the time it takes and don’t be afraid to ask.
The Smart Set is a winner and the SMART way is a winning way. If this is a foreshadowing of things to come from House Sussex, don’t forget the Duke of Sussex’s own impressive portfolio of work and tangible impact, then to that I say, the vision is good; keep it coming.
