Catwalk shows, fashion weeks, designers, collections are not the biggest headlines in fashion lately, as luxury goods companies have started to focus on reinventing their products and retail experience by adding in the "green element".
Kering, the parent company of Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Bottega Veneta, has introduced environmental profit and loss (EP&L) accounts that put a financial value on the company’s environmental impact. Gucci's designer has pledged to reduce his label's shows from five to two a year.
At LVMH, its Loewe label has begun making clothing out of recycled plastic bottles, finding less toxic ways of galvanising hardware, and working on denim that requires 80% less water to manufacture. Prada is using yarn spun from recycled ocean plastic to make its iconic nylon backpacks.
Balenciaga and Burberry now tout not only the quality of their fabrics and leathers, but also their green credentials.
Luxury brands are also joining the movement of re-commerce and experimenting with trade-ins, second-hand sales, etc.
At luxury retailer Selfridges, you can now resell, rent, repair and refill under its Project Earth Program.
Green is the new normal for fashion and luxury brands are the vanguards to reinvent the retail experience and inject sustainability into products through innovations.
The second-hand market is expected to grow faster than fast fashion. In the US it is projected to almost triple in value in the next 10 years, from USD 28 billion in 2019 to USD 80 billion in 2029, according to Thredup, an online consignment and thrift store brand. Small wonder Gucci, LVMH, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi’s, and Anna Sui are experimenting with the idea – after years of claiming it was difficult to scale and could dilute brand strength.
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