TheRealReal x Burberry Relationship Promotes Deeply Personal Mutual Brand Loyalty

Writing for Forbes, Pamela N. Danziger digs beyond the obvious into the details of the newly-announced partnership between Burberry and TheRealReal. Officially the union promotes increasingly critical synergies in corporate responsibility and sustainable living in the fashion industry.

“Leading the way in creating a more circular economy for fashion is a key element of our Responsibility agenda,” Pam Batty, Burberry’s VP of corporate responsibility, said in a statement. “Through this new partnership we hope to not only champion a more circular future but encourage consumers to consider all the options available to them when they are looking to refresh their wardrobes.”

Burberry claims to have been at the “forefront of sustainability in fashion” for more than 15 years, an assertion that assertion may be up for debate among environmentalists. Surely Burberry doesn’t claim to share the Stella McCartney eco-conscious spotlight.

McCartney has been on the RealReal since 2018, experiencing a 65% increase in the number of consignors of her branded merchandise and a total increase of 74% of Stella McCartney items sold on the RealReal after announcing the partnership.

The real importance of the Burberry - RealReal relationship is lifetime customer acquisition, argues Danziger. More customers who experience both brands first at resale, then at full-price in a Burberry store, then returning to the trusted halo of The RealReal to resell and recycle. Sustainable, eco-conscious action is a critical issue, but don’t underestimate the inherent result of sustainable economics that translates into brand loyalty more intimate and personal than any ad campaign.

The RealReal reports demand for Burberry has increased 64% year-over-year, with Millennial and GenZ customer searches rising fastest on its site. In addition, the ThredUp 2019 Resale Report states that Burberry is the luxury brand with the best resale value; Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermès, and Prada are lower on that list.

Related: Caroline Knudssen Fronts Riccardo Tisci’s NET-A-PORTER x Burberry Fall 2019 Collection

Some Fashion Luxury Brands Are Just Buying Carbon Neutral Status -- Not Gabriela Hearst

Some Fashion Luxury Brands Are Just Buying Carbon Neutral Status -- Not Gabriela Hearst

Carbon Neutral Buzz

The new luxury fashion buzz word in the sustainability dialogue is “carbon neutral”. Long-time sustainable brand Gabriela Hearst delivered a carbon-neutral Spring 2020 runway show in New York, and Gucci announced to considerable fanfare that “it had achieved 100 percent carbon neutrality in its supply chain and operations.” How? By buying carbon offsets writes Vogue Business. Both Burberry in London and Gucci in Milan hosted carbon neutral Spring 2020 shows, again by buying carbon offsets.

Rachel Cernansky notes that the numbers add up on paper but buying carbon credits isn’t a substitute for actually reducing emissions, and ideally they follow — not lead — actual carbon-reduction improvements in the brand’s design, sales, marketing and manufacturing and manufacturing processes.

Gabriela Hearst Sets New Standards for NYFW

Gabriela Hearst is a leader in the sustainability sector. No one tops Stella McCartney, but Hearst makes a strong showing. Vogue Business shares innovations taken by Hearst that surely aren’t happening at either Gucci or Burberry.

The designer booked only local models (see photo above) for her SS20 New York show, and this new policy will become permanent. Hearst also cut out sample production for her supply chain and — this is a biggie — the designer is shipping product via boat, resulting in a longer 10-week delivery window.

New York’s CFDA website drills down even deeper on Gabriela Hearst’s initiatives for NYFW. She teamed up with her production company Bureau Betak to track every element of the show including insuring that the food used for catering to the models used only local and seasonal foodstuffs and the models’ hair was done without using electricity.

Unable to cut down on the emissions from private cars, Ubers, and taxis delivering guests to her September 10 show, Hearst gave guests a scarf featuring a print of animals that’ve have recently gone extinct. The Gabriella Hearst brand donated funds in guests names to Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit organization based in Oregon that has filed lawsuits on behalf of youth plaintiffs against governments, arguing that they are infringing on the children’s rights to a stable climate system. Read on in Fashion & Brands.

Burberry Launches Econyl Sustainable Nylon Collection In Both Heritage + New Icons Designs

Burberry joins Prada’s June 2019 similar announcement of launching collections made with Econyl, the sustainable nylon yarn made from regenerated fishing nets, fabric scraps and industrial plastic.

The highlights of Burberry’s Econyl capsule include its heritage trench and lightweight classic car coat silhouettes, as well as what the brand is calling new icons, the logo-print oversized cape, fleece-lined puffer and reversible bomber jacket.

Burberry states that the introduction of the sustainable fashion collection is part of its plan to tackle what it calls an “environmental waste issue while creating a sustainable and versatile material” and is “just one example of the 50 disruptions Burberry is making throughout its supply chain to create a more circular fashion industry”.

Giulio Bonazzi, chief executive at Aquafil added: “We are delighted to collaborate with Burberry for this capsule collection. We believe innovative fibres like Econyl regenerated nylon are the future and are proud to support brands who use our yarns, transforming waste into incredible designs and raising the profile and possibilities of a more circular fashion system.”

Burberry’s Econyl collection is the latest innovative sustainable introduction, recently the fashion house collaborated with company 37.5 to use volcanic sand and waste coconut shell in thermoregulation technology for its quilted jackets, and it introduced Refibra, a new yarn produced by upcycling cotton leftovers from the Burberry Mill in Yorkshire, to make its dust bags for all jewellery and leather goods.

LVMH Takes Minority Position In Stella McCartney | Makes Stella Sustainability Adviser To Arnault

Stella McCartney is making front page news with the announcement that the designer, who abandoned her relationship with Kerring in 2018, has now joined forces with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury group.

McCartney will remain in her role as her brand’s creative director and also as majority stockholder in the Stella McCartney business. Her additional responsibilities include becoming a special adviser to Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman, and also to the LVMH board, on the topic of sustainability.

The fashion industry has an enormously negative and earth-harming footprint on the environment, and no one in fashion world is better prepared to fill this role of LVMH adviser on sustainability than Stella McCartney.

The addition of Stella McCartney’s voice and brand to the LVMH creative and leadership stable underscores the company’s commitment to gender equity. Since 2017, LVMH has named Maria Grazia Chiuri to head Dior and Claire Waight Keller to lead Givenchy. Arnaut has taken a minority position in the also sustainability-focused Gabriela Hearst, while creating a blockbuster disruption of the entire luxury industry with the creation of a new fashion house Fenty, created with Rihanna.

In talking about her new partnership, Stella McCartney said that since ending her partnership with LVMH rival Kerring, she had been pursued by many potential partners and investors wanting to help expand her business.

In the end, McCartney made a seemingly wise decision, one that gives her an opportunity to have heavy influence on issues that matter to her a great deal, while tapping into funding and a professional contacts base that will give her enormous flexibility. The importance of Stella’s access to Arnault and the LVMH board of directors can’t be understated.

“The chance to realize and accelerate the full potential of the brand alongside Mr. Arnault and as part of the LVMH family, while still holding the majority ownership in the business, was an opportunity that hugely excited me,” she said.

Prada Declares 2021 Sustainability Initiative Converting All Iconic Nylon Bags To Econyl

Prada Declares 2021 Sustainability Initiative Converting All Iconic Nylon Bags To Econyl

Even iconic products like Prada’s famous nylon bags need to advance to retain their original meaning, relevance, and status. Miuccia Prada is increasingly onboard with sustainability, giving up fur a month ago and now pledging to convert the “virgin nylon’ used in her famous bags to Econyl. a regenerated-nylon yarn that can be recycled an infinite number of times. The new fabric is made from reclaimed ocean plastics, fishing nets and textile fiber waste.

Chopard Extends Luxury Brand Sustainability Drive To Chloe Sevigny's Handbag Inspo

Chopard Extends Luxury Brand Sustainability Drive To Chloe Sevigny's Handbag Inspo

Swiss luxury jewelry and watchmaker Chopard has made another advancement in its commitment to sustainability with a handbag designed by award-winning actor Chloë Sevigny.

The geometrically-styled, highly-recognizable evening bag featuring a large heart overlapping the front and side panel, was inspired by “iconic images of the 1940s,” according to a Chopard release on Friday. The bag, sold in three colors, is made from calf-skin leather that is sustainably sourced and “fully traceable,” Chopard said.

For the Sevigny-designed “Green Carpet Collection” bag, which retails for $2,360, Chopard sought to not only trace the leather lineage, but also to work with the tannery on environmental management systems that ensure “all processes and resources, including water, waste, and energy were responsibility managed,” according to Green Carpet, sustainability expert Livia Firth’s Eco-Age. Reinforcement materials on the bag also are made from natural latex and vegetable tanned leather waste.

Prada Goes Fur Free In All Company Brands Starting With Spring 2020 Collections

Prada Goes Fur Free In All Company Brands Starting With Spring 2020 Collections

Italian luxury Prada is joining the ranks of fur-free luxury brands, announcing that all collections starting with women’s spring/summer 2020 will not use fur. Prada previously used fur from foxes, minks and rabbits in its luxury collections.

The decision comes after working closely with the Humane Society International, Fur Free Alliance, and Italian animal rights group LAV. Prada’s subsidiary Miu Miu is on the same fur-free spring 2020 timetable. Products that have already been produced will be sold.

Stella McCartney Wins 'FUR FREE FUR' Fake Fur Trademark Battle With USPTO→

Stella McCartney Wins 'FUR FREE FUR' Fake Fur Trademark Battle With USPTO

Call the case Stella McCartney vs the US Govt — and Stella won.

Stella McCartney is one of most most committed voices in the global sustainability moment. In a trademark case that was a bit esoteric for the USPTO, McCartney sought to trademark the concept ‘FUR FREE FUR’ and not a specific textile composition. Stella wanted a category of existing and future fabrics not even created to live under her proposed ‘FUR FREE FUR” trademark label.

'Paris Good Fashion' Launches 5-Year Plan Making Paris Center Of Sustainable Fashion Industry

MERCI STORE PARIS. PHOTO BY ROBIN BENZRIHEM ON UNSPLASH

'Paris Good Fashion' Launches 5-Year Plan Making Paris Center Of Sustainable Fashion Industry

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon footprint and is considered to be the second biggest polluter of fresh water globally, producting 20% of the world’s industrial wastewater. Forbes adds that the global fashion industry uses 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides required to produce crops used in garments.

Until now, London has led the international pace in the fashion sustainability movement. This week, Paris weighed in with a new five-year plan designed to establish French credentials in this critical arena of public policy and environmental action.

Called ‘Paris Good Fashion,’ the project outlines a five-year plan to build an open, collaborative community of fashion professionals, entrepreneurs, designers and experts working together to make Paris a sustainable fashion capital.

Frédéric Hocquard, deputy to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Antoinette Guhl, deputy in charge of social economy and solidarity, as well as former fashion journalist Isabelle Lefort, promised a more comprehensive project outline at a June 2019 event that will also feature campaigns promoting fashion recycling and conferences surrounding sustainable discussions

Rihanna and LVMH Team UP With Potential To Create Dynamic, People-Centric, Global Luxury Brand

USA-France ambassador Jane D. Hartley, Rihanna, Bernard Arnault, and his wife Hélène Mercier at Christian Dior SS 2016 fashion show.

Rihanna and LVMH Team UP With Potential To Create Dynamic, People-Centric, Global Luxury Brand

Vanessa Friedman asks for The New York Times: “Is Rihanna the Coco Chanel of the 21st century?” Can the multi-hyphenate talent, without an ounce of fashion training, launch a new powerhouse luxury brand?

Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, thinks so and is in serious talks with Rihanna about launching a new global Fenty brand. Friedman writes that execs at Fenty Beauty and LVMH corporate were astonished over the runaway success of Fenty Beauty, launched in a diverse array of skin tones and with a fan base of 6.3 million Instagram followers. Fenty Beauty was named one of TIME magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of 2017.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty IS a real, live heritage brand with a global reach. No ‘authentic’ story must be created around her image. Rihanna IS the story and she has created it — not with mood boards on Madison Avenues — but with her entire life.

Rihanna comes to the world of luxury brands having made them her canvas for a decade. Luxury fashion has brought her far beyond the limits of the music world. Styled by Mel Ottenberg since 2011, Rihanna has aligned herself with emerging designers and luxury brands like Lanvin and Givenchy. Rather than working with a luxury house exclusively, she used these same brands to suit her purposes.

In 2014, she was named fashion icon of the year at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, where she appeared in a sheer crystal-spangled Adam Selman dress and matching cap, a white fur wrap strategically draped around her body, setting off a so-called naked trend in red carpet dressing. The next year, at the Met Gala, she wore a giant yellow cape from the Chinese designer Guo Pei, and enshrined her skill at making an entrance.

Not mentioned in Friedman’s piece, but a key component in the forthcoming Rihanna/LVMH alliance is the social conscience of the new luxury brand. Here there is an opportunity to set a very high bar, and all my instincts say that Rihanna and Arnault understand well global politics and human suffering.

RIHANNA AT THE COSTUME INSTITUTE GALA 2018. Image DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

With governments in chaos worldwide, but Rihanna anchored deeply in the lives of everyday people, I fully expect a new paradigm to emerge with a Rihanna-led Fenty house that is an activist house, too. Rihanna is deeply embedded in the obligations that women leaders have assumed in creating real change in the world.

If LVMH is equally courageous and up to the task, we might see a new luxury brand DNA that moves beyond the rarified and exclusive vision of Coco Chanel to one that touches people in big and small ways worldwide. If anyone can jumpstart this new 21st century, luxury brand vision, it’s the combined prowess of Rihanna and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault.

Burberry Formally Gives Up Fur, Moves To Recycled Packaging & Will Stop Burning Excess Inventory

Burberry Formally Gives Up Fur, Moves To Recycled Packaging & Will Stop Burning Excess Inventory

Burberry made two announcements on Thursday, following up on its May 2018 promise to review its use of real fur in its collections. Equally important, Burberry's chief executive Marco Gobbetti responded to criticism from the general public over its practice of destroying its unsold luxury products. In a first move for the luxury brands market, Burberry will become the first company to reuse, repair, donate or recycle all of its unsaleable products. 

Gobbetti said: “Modern luxury means being socially and environmentally responsible. This belief is core to us at Burberry and key to our long-term success. We are committed to applying the same creativity to all parts of Burberry as we do to our products.”

The amount of stock Burberry destroys had risen sharply in recent years, from £5.5 million in fiscal year 2013 to £28.6 million in the last fiscal year. Gobbetti also announced that the creation of a new logo triggered a need for all new packaging, shopping bags, marketing materials, and they would now use recycled materials. 

As for the company's use of fur, it's over at Burberry. Riccardo Tisci's debut collection presented at London Fashion Week on September 17 will be fur free. 

Jennifer Fisher Jewelry Takes A Stand For Immigration Ethics & Lab Grown Diamonds

Jennifer Fisher Jewelry Takes A Stand For Immigration Ethics & Lab Grown Diamonds

Jennifer Fisher's Instagram page is testimony to her customers' love for OTT jewelry -- aka statement or major bling designs. Why not wear two giant hoops in one ear, writes Vogue. More is better. And just to reinforce the idea that today's bling-lovin girls can also have heart, Fisher throws in ACLU petitions and sad pics of immigrant kids at the border, lost in America's totally dysfunctional immigration system. 

Jennifer Fisher's approach to jewelry design and her personal/brand values underscores that people must not judge a book by its cover -- a challenge in today's Inst-world. The idea that more-is-more may not reflect your personal values. They are not mine, but I will not criticize any brand that is working to product more "sustainable" or "earth-friendly" jewelry

Fisher's new relationship with Diamond Foundry reflects her customers’ changing views on diamonds, particularly her millennial fans who are candidates to buy lab-grown diamonds. “As we’ve grown, people have been asking us more and more questions about [the origins of] our diamonds,” she said. “This new generation wants to know that no one was harmed [in the mining of the stones], and that they essentially have a carbon footprint of zero. But at the same time, we’re getting tons of requests for diamond stud earrings—so I thought now was the perfect opportunity to become more sustainable.”

Eye: As Phoebe Philo Prepares To Leave Céline, Will She Sink Deeply Into Her British Roots?

Eye: As Phoebe Philo Prepares To Leave Céline, Will She Sink Deeply Into Her British Roots?

Phoebe Philo is officially leaving Céline, after a decade spent restoring and reinvigorating the LVMH label as a favorite of powerful, working women. WWD reports that Philo's last collection for the label will debut at Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018, with succeeding collections crafted by various Céline employees until a new creative director is appointed. 

In a brief statement announcing the news, Ms. Philo thanked her team, and Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury group that owns Céline, said: “What Phoebe has accomplished over the past 10 years represents a key chapter in the history of Céline. We are very grateful to Phoebe for having contributed to the great momentum of this Maison. A new era of development for Céline will now start, and I am extremely confident in the future success of this iconic Maison.”

Stella McCartney Delivers 2016 Kering Talk On Deforestation & Sustainable Viscose

Salma Hayek supported good friend Stella McCartney's 2016 Kering Talk Monday evening at the London College of Fashion. Her nature-inspired print dress came from McCartney's vegetarian fashion collection. Hayek's husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO, attended as well.

The focus of Stella's talk was the issue of deforestation and sustainable sourcing of viscose, one of the most used fabrics in the global fashion industry. 

The Stella McCartney lifestyle brand was launched in partnership with Kering in 2001. Fifteen years later, the designer is the luxury industry's most consistent voice for animal and environmental welfare and sustainable design. Materials like organic cotton and recycled cashmere are fundamental to the brand. 

When McCartney first launched her label she was “ridiculed” for banning leather and fur from her collections. “I was told definitely I would not have a business, I wouldn’t have an accessories business…by people I worked with, that I looked up to." But as luxury consumers have become more conscious of the impact of their consumption decisions on the planet's health, Stella McCartney sales have risen annually in the "double digits . . . for a while now."

“Fashion is one of the most harmful industries on the planet, and I think people are a little more aware of that now,” Stella said in her Kering Talk. While she says she doesn't want to preach, McCartney didn't hesitate to call out her parent company. “I’m sure [Kering] will give up python farms very soon,” she said wishfully. She was especially adamant that fashion companies trade out real fur for faux: “You really can’t tell the difference. There’s no reason to kill 15 million innocent creatures.”