Gucci launches collection from dormant stock

As it awaits the arrival of its new creative director Sabato de Sarno, whose first show is scheduled for September, Gucci has launched a unique circular fashion project. The Kering-owned Italian luxury fashion house has asked various designers to use its archives and bring them back to life through new creations. “Gucci Continuum”, as the initiative has been called, is hosted in the Vault virtual concept store, now available on the Gucci website.

The initiative is designed “to extend the life of Gucci’s archives and dormant fabric stocks, inviting brands, artists and designers to incorporate them into future projects, reducing waste and encouraging circularity through the virtuous relationship between creativity and conscious production,” the company says.

Gucci Continuum has just launched on the Vault website, where a series of products made by a first selection of ten creative partners are sold: Italian designer Alice Pons, American military clothing manufacturer Alpha Industries with distributor Slam Jam, American artist Winston’s label “Call of the Void”, Hillary Taymour’s Collina Strada brand, DRx Romanelli, the Californian multidisciplinary designer Darren Romanelli’s brand, and Vans, the skateboarding brand of the VF Corp group, which is also based in California.

Also of note is Swedish label Rave Review, designed by Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück, who usually recycle upholstery fabrics, and fellow Swedish designer Hodakova by Ellen Hodakova Larsson, who has used old Gucci belts to make skirts. Also featured are the Japanese brand Proleta Re Art, which specialises in patchwork creations in upcycled denim, as well as the French label EgonLab.

EgonLab’s two designers, Kévin Nompeix and Florentin Glémarec, had already announced this collaboration during their fashion show in January. For Gucci, they created denim jeans and shirts decorated with pearls and double G metal pendants.

The house also recently unveiled a partnership with Vestiaire Collective. It launched the “Gucci preloved” programme on the resale site, which allows its customers to resell their Gucci handbags. Once the items have been authenticated and evaluated in-store, the customer receives a voucher to spend on the site or in selected Gucci shops.