Armani chooses Puglia with one of the first regenerative agriculture projects and OVS Sicily ...
Haute couture, increasingly attentive to the needs of the planet, is renewing its production with the use of highly sustainable, low environmental impact materials aimed at preserving resources.
Giorgio Armani, one of the world's most important and committed stylists who has made the choice of innovative materials one of his most successful points of reference, announces on World Environment Day the launch of a project in Puglia dedicated to eco-sustainable cotton and regenerative agriculture. OVS, on the other hand, is launching a Capsule collection highlighting the entire national textile chain from organic production to weaving, dyeing and packaging.
In May," explains the Armani fashion house, "production of eco-sustainable cotton was started on a hectare of land in Rutigliano in Apulia. Gradually, cultivation will expand to occupy a total agricultural area of five hectares. The site is among the first field experiments in Europe to test agroforestry cotton with alternative tree species and regenerative practices.
The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Fashion Task Force of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (chaired by Yoox founder Federico Marchetti) and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, founded by King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, and will be coordinated by the European Forestry Institute together with the Council for Research in Agriculture and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy (Crea) and Pretaterra (an organisation that develops and implements regenerative and replicable agroforestry systems).
"The textile industry," explains Giorgio Armani, "is one of the production activities with the greatest impact on the planet: a problem that cannot be neglected. Our commitment together with the Sustainable Markets Initiative is to promote positive change: it is a bold and innovative project that has a special meaning for me and my company. Actively participating in the development of agro-forestry regenerative cotton, moreover on Italian soil, is an important step, which will also have a real impact on local communities. Regenerative fashion, from the utopia that it was, is finally beginning to take on tangible characteristics'.
Cotton is among the most widely used materials in the textile industry. Its environmental impact is very high: 3% of the soil is used for cultivation, 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides used globally, in addition to the large consumption of water.
The project supported by Armani aims to scientifically test and evaluate new ways of implementing sustainable cotton production in Italy. The aim is to demonstrate how it is possible to increase landscape diversity, soil fertility, water saving and biodiversity-related ecosystem services, while producing cotton with reduced environmental impact through the use of agroforestry systems.
The innovative regenerative cultivation system respects natural cycles. It restores soil health and protects water and biodiversity by reducing erosion, tillage and the use of agricultural chemicals, integrating crops, trees and livestock.
Not only Armani, but more and more brands are committed to sustainable production. In April, OVS launched its first capsule collection of men's and women's T-shirts in six colours, made of organic cotton traced grown in Sicily.
Today, the world's largest cotton producers are India and the United States, but in the 1950s 350,000 hectares were used to grow cotton in Sicily. In 2022, OVS started a collaboration with the organic cotton farm Cotone Organico di Sicilia to take over those cultivations and promote the production of organic cotton. The project has a double significance because the land has been confiscated from the Mafia and in this way is being redeveloped, encouraging agriculture. The OVS project also valorises and involves the entire national supply chain: from the cotton cultivated on the outskirts of Palermo to the packaging in Verona, passing through spinning in Salerno, dyeing and weaving in Como.
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