Why Soane's Lulu Lytle thinks our stance on costly craft needs to change

Language matters. The word ‘craft’ has often been associated with something homespun, but more recently it has denoted expertise and experience instead. It’s evident in the way people talk about visiting a brewery, having a suit made or investing in beautiful knives – there’s a resurgent interest in skill and an appreciation of process and quality. This is good news.

It’s a marked shift from 25 years ago, when I set up my business, Soane Britain, in an effort to preserve skills that were in jeopardy. Back then, people were bemused – they felt it was a strange time to be establishing a business producing objects exclusively in the UK. Over the previous decades, Britain and many other industrialised nations had seen a huge shift away from small-scale local production, as costs inflated and so much manufacturing was offshored to lower income countries.

I felt there was an urgent need for people to understand the importance and value of craftsmanship. I also believed there was a market for well-made, long-lasting furniture, lighting, fabrics and wallpaper, so I embarked on a road trip to meet makers – blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, upholsterers, silversmiths and glassblowers – across the UK. The more workshops I visited, the more I heard makers saying they couldn’t find apprentices and that skills were dying out after three or four generations.

Soane Britain started out making copies of 18th- and 19th-century pieces and interpretations of classical forms, but we quickly began to make our own designs and experiment with materials such as rattan. What has remained key throughout is knowledge and skill: we are led by the makers, who understand better than anyone the processes they are working with.

When I talk about supporting local production, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate craft from all around the world – far from it. However, whether you are making work in China, Nepal or the UK, you need to be there in the workshops, understanding the supply chain and ensuring makers are being paid a fair wage.

Many big brands are reluctant to discuss how and where something is made, let alone celebrate their artisans; but if a business wants to keep its production processes anonymous, it’s probably because they’re not very palatable. Ambiguity can also lead to confusion about the work that goes into creating crafted objects and therefore misrepresents their value.

One thing that surprises me is the lack of curiosity about the integrity of manufacturing processes. Instead of asking why something costs so much, the question surely should be: at what expense does a huge reduction in cost come? Is the craftsperson being paid fairly and how far is the item being shipped? When something new is really cheap, that should ring alarm bells.

The press has a large role to play in asking these questions – not just about furnishings, but about everything from food to fashion. How can we be sure we’re really buying something that’s ethically made? And how do consumers demand information and avoid being misled by greenwashing?

When it comes to the objects we live with, there’s a pressing need to make less and better, which takes time, trust and collaboration. We have a long way to go, but Soane’s clients and makers are far more engaged with these questions now than they were in 1997. Where once I felt I was swimming against the tide, now I feel I’m swimming with it.