Gucci Takes Home Circularity Award at Milan Fashion Week
An upcoming denim collection made from regenerative cotton and recycled fibers helped Gucci win recognition for its circularity efforts at Milan Fashion Week.
The Italian luxury brand won the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Award for Circular Economy at this year’s Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) Sustainable Fashion Awards Sunday, edging out finalists Chloé and ACS Clothing, which were also recognized for their circular endeavors.
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The distinction recognizes fashion leaders that are embracing circular economy principles and taking steps to mitigate climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation said Gucci earned the accolade for “its efforts to create quality garments fit for a circular economy and continued commitment to using materials grown in a way which supports the natural environment.”
“In the world of fashion, our vision of a circular economy is one where products are used more, are made to be made again, and are produced from safe and recycled or renewable inputs,” Ellen MacArthur Foundation CEO Andrew Morlet said in a statement. “We’re delighted to see top players in the global fashion industry—winner Gucci and finalists Chloé and ACS Clothing—embrace these circular economy principles in their products and through redesigning entire business models.”
Gucci, which entered into a strategic partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in July 2022, plans to release a new denim collection next year incorporating regeneratively grown cotton from a Regenagri-certified Algosur farm in Spain and post-consumer recycled fibers collected and re-spun in Italy. Items in the collection will also include a digital product passport tracing the journey from raw materials to production and providing information about product care and repair services.
“Transforming the fashion system won’t happen overnight,” Morlet added. “But collaboration across the industry from the design of future products to the processes, services, supply chains and business models that will deliver them and keep them in use, gives us hope that a circular economy for fashion can become the norm.”
Sunday was not the first time the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards recognized Gucci. Just last year, the fashion house took home the CNMI Climate Action Award for its collaboration with a regenerative sheep farm in Uruguay to source wool.
“Building scalable collaborations is a vital part of Gucci’s strategy and the ‘Denim project’ is an example of combining the many strengths of the House’s supply chain partners and leveraging innovative tech to enhance circular economy principles,” Gucci CEO Jean-François Palus said in a statement.
Chloé, a participant in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Jeans Redesign project, received recognition for making 90 percent of its jeans portfolio circular in design, including by using durable, traceable, safe and recycled materials. The foundation shortlisted ACS Clothing for its work making circular business models easier for brands to adopt, including by offering a range of sustainable services, including in rental, repair and resale.
