Gucci to Go Fur-Free Starting With Spring 2018 Collection

It’s barely even fall, but Gucci is already laying the groundwork for one of the biggest trends of spring: going fur-free. Today, the Italian luxury house announced its plans to stop selling fur starting next season with its Spring 2018 collection. “Being socially responsible is one of Gucci’s core values, and we will continue to strive to do better for the environment and animals,” Gucci president and chief executive Marco Bizzarri said in a statement to the Humane Society of the United States. “[Gucci] hopes it will help inspire innovation and raise awareness, changing the luxury fashion industry for the better.”

Aside from preventing cruelty towards animals, Gucci’s decision to go fur-free is also apparently motivated by a larger plan to modernize the company, philosophically and sustainably, as Bizzari said in an interview with Business of Fashion. “Do you think using furs today is still modern?” he told the publication. “I don’t think it’s still modern and that’s the reason why we decided not to do that. It’s a little bit outdated. Creativity can jump in many different directions instead of using furs.”

Indeed, creative head Alessandro Michele has proven over the few years since becoming creative director that he has no shortage of ideas, even while looking to the past as he did with his collection for Spring 2018, which took inspiration from ’70s and ’80s glam with a maximal approach. Michele’s vision is clearly working for the company as well, as Gucci has managed to capture 40 percent more of millennial shoppers over the past two years, which now make up more than half of their clientele, according to BoF.

With the move to go fur-free, Gucci will be joining the ranks of similarly minded companies such as Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Stella McCartney, Yoox Net-a-Porter and more. With Gucci onboard, perhaps the fur-free momentum among fashion labels will pick up—at least, that is the hope of Humane Society’s senior manager of fashion policy PJ Smith, who said in a statement, “Gucci’s decision is a game-changing moment in the fashion industry. We’ll look back at this moment, I predict, and see that this was the turning point when the business world turned away from fur and substituted cruelty-free garments in its place.”

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