Gucci Partners With The RealReal

MILAN — Luxury consignment company The RealReal will reveal today it is partnering with Gucci through the end of the year to launch an online shop featuring Gucci items, promoting circularity for luxury fashion.

The move is in line with Gucci’s sustainability goals.

“While we are focused on reducing our environmental footprint across our entire supply chain, we are also exploring ways to embed circularity in our approach,” Gucci president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri told WWD. “Earlier in June we launched Gucci circular lines, with our first collection Gucci Off the Grid. Through our ‘national consignment day [on Monday]’ collaboration with The RealReal in the U.S. we are further highlighting the inherent longevity of Gucci’s collections. The growing popularity of the resale market is very interesting to us and it can be incorporated into a comprehensive approach to circularity that touches every area of the business, and beyond to end-of-life for products.”

In addition, for every person purchasing Gucci globally or consigning the brand’s products in the U.S. on The RealReal, the companies will plant a tree through nonprofit One Tree Planted. The global reforestation efforts range from planting trees that help mitigate climate change in the Amazon Rainforest to replenishing California forests damaged during this year’s record-breaking wildfire season.

“Gucci is raising the bar not only for the fashion industry, but for all companies by continuously innovating to make its business more sustainable,” said Julie Wainwright, founder and ceo of The RealReal. “Together we’re shining a global spotlight on resale that we hope will encourage all consumers to support the circular economy and join us in reducing fashion’s carbon footprint.”

Last November The RealReal was the first company to join Bizzarri’s CEO Challenge for carbon neutrality, pledging to be fully carbon neutral in 2021.

To date, consignment of women’s and men’s Gucci clothing on The RealReal has saved 230 metric tons of carbon and more than 10 million liters of water, as compared to the environmental costs of manufacturing those items for the first time, according to The RealReal.

The Gucci x The RealReal Shop will carry a mix of pieces directly from Gucci as well as consignors. New items will be curated daily, blending recent and current season pieces, classic best sellers and special vintage pieces across all categories, women’s, men’s, fine jewelry, watches, home and kids.

According to The RealReal, demand for Gucci products has grown 19 percent year-on-year and Gucci’s resale value is 2.3 times stronger than average. Gucci is the most in-demand men’s brand for the third year in a row, according to the Resale Report 2020, and 18- to 34-year-olds drove the greatest search demand growth year-over-year of any age group.

Top selling items include: The GG leather belt; the brand’s leather horsebit loafers; silk printed scarves; leather knee-high boots; Gucci’s Princetown horsebit mules, and the GG canvas belt bag.

By category, jewelry shows the biggest demand growth, up 47 percent, followed by men’s, up 24 percent. The “most obsessed” Gucci items of all time is the Gucci Soho Disco crossbody bag, followed by the GG leather belt.

Bizzarri has touted in the past how luxury products are sustainable because they are “not disposable,” made with long-lasting quality, and often passed on through generations.

“In luxury fashion it’s common for designers to be inspired by the house’s past collections and for Gucci, this takes on a more sustainable aspect,” said Bizzarri.

Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele “conceives a collection as a continuous narrative,” the executive continued. “His collections are a mixture of carryover pieces and new items, which means that they are seasonless. This timeless appeal enables our clients to wear our products for longer. On the technical side, this also helps us upcycle cuttings from past collections and regenerating materials we have already used. There is still much to do, of course, and we are looking at sustainability through every angle possible.”

The Off the Grid collection employs recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials, including the trademarked Econyl, a regenerated nylon made from nylon offcuts and pre- and post-consumer waste, such as abandoned fishing nets and carpets — transforming plastics that harm marine life and old materials that will likely end up in landfills into a new high-quality thread.

This was the first collection by Michele as part of the Gucci Circular Lines, an initiative created to support the company’s circular production.

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