Gucci’s latest innovation Demetra, which combines quality, softness, durability, and scalability with an eco-friendly spirit, is the result of the Italian fashion house's desire to explore and innovate materials for the future. It's been two years of research and innovation which have finally paid off. It's called Demetra, and it's Gucci's new vegan material. The name was chosen by its current creative director, Alessandro Michele, in honor of the Greek goddess of agriculture. It is the first animal-free material of a luxury firm. In its commitment to a more sustainable world and increasingly free of animal cruelty, Demetra is a material made from wood pulp and bio-based polyurethane. Not intended to replace the brand’s use of leather, but rather to compliment it. The first products created by Gucci with this material are the Gucci Basket, Gucci New Ace, and Gucci Rhyton sneakers. The parts of the sneakers that are not made with Demetra are made with organic cotton, steel, and recycled polyester.
Previously, the Italian firm has already filed the patent application for this new material, whose name has been chosen by the creative director of the house, the Italian designer Alessandro Michele, in reference to Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, equivalent to Roman Ceres, in what should be understood as a clear reference to the organic base of this new fiber. Greek goddess of agriculture, equivalent to the Roman Ceres, in what should be understood as a clear allusion to the organic base on which this new fiber is based.
As a way to coincide with the brand’s centenary year, Demetra was presented as a new category of material that symbolizes well the aesthetic and quality standards of Gucci and its passion for innovation, showing itself as the result of our skills and our long tradition to illuminate the new stages of a future in constant evolution.
Demetra is offered to the industry as a scalable solution and as a more sustainable material, to offer animal-free vegan alternatives.
Gucci has shown great commitment to responsible sourcing and works closely with its suppliers to ensure traceable and sustainable sourcing at every step of the chain. Gucci's 2019 environmental profit and loss analysis show that we are on track to achieve our 2025 sustainability goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. As for materials. Gucci’s organic fabrics are organic GOTS cotton as well as OCS (Organic Cotton Standard) certified.
77% Raw Vegan Material
Produced entirely in Italy at the facilities of Gruppo Colonna, a company in which Gucci has held a 51% stake since last October 2019, among the more detailed information that the firm has already provided about the material, we find that it would have more than 77% of raw materials of vegetable origin. In this regard, the use of a viscose obtained from the pulp of wood from sustainable plantations, as well as a bio-based polyurethane obtained from renewable sources, stands out.
Meanwhile, to ensure that the new material is able to meet the same demands that the company and its customers require of all the fabrics and fibers used in its articles, once produced, and with the intention of making it softer, stronger, and more flexible, Demetra undergoes the same tanning processes used for animal leather.
A material which, Gucci has emphasized, Demetra will not seek to replace, but rather to complement, being incorporated throughout all its collections to provide a vegan alternative to its customers in all product categories, from fashion garments to footwear and accessories.
As for the rest of the materials and products used throughout the manufacturing process of the material, apart from those already mentioned, Gucci would have pointed out that the use of all those with a less sustainable origin has been reduced to its minimum expression. Having resorted to them only if necessary to ensure the quality and aesthetics of the final result, and maintaining at this time constant research that should lead to its replacement by elements with a more sustainable origin. All this is in order to achieve a fully sustainable manufacturing process, whose waste generated along the way will be recycled and reused by Gucci itself as part of its "Gucci-Up" program. An initiative in terms of circularity, with which the firm managed to recover about 22 tons of leather and textile waste generated during the manufacturing phases alone between 2018 and 2019. Once this initial phase of exclusive use by the French multinational and its various subsidiaries was overcome, the new customizable material had to show that it had no impediment to its scalability or in terms of production limits and will be made available to the rest of the industry. Third-party companies and groups have started using Demetra as raw material for their products as early as the beginning of 2022.