At Bottega Veneta‘s Autumn Winter 2020 show at Milan Fashion Week, models walked down the runway in chunky boots made of coffee and sugarcane. The footwear is a mix between wellies and clogs and is fully biodegradable.
The Italian fashion house explained:
The rubber is made with natural molecules, including ones derived from sugarcane and coffee, rather than with synthetic chemicals. That means they will biodegrade within a year once placed underground, or in a controlled environment under specific lighting and humidity conditions alongside the presence of microorganisms.
This is the latest move towards sustainability for Bottega Veneta, after becoming the first luxury brand to receive a LEED certificate for its headquarters.
Many luxury brands, including Burberry, Prada, and Gucci, have turned animal-fur-free. However, attention has shifted from fur to leather due to the environmental impact and allegations of animal cruelty.
Leather requires the mass nurture of livestock, which leads to deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and the consumption of limited natural resources. It also involves chemical pollution produced in the process of tanning and treating the leather.
Luxury group Kering – the global multi-industry company behind Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Gucci – has launched metal-free tanning for around a quarter of its collections. Metal-free tanning prevents the potential contamination of local water supplies.
The move is part of a broader sustainability vision. On September 24, 2019, Kering announced that the entire group would go entirely carbon neutral within its operations and across the whole supply chain. It promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% for all its associated fashion houses by 2025 and offset all emissions by investing in biodiversity and forest conservation projects.
Although Bottega Veneta has always made leather products, the move into biodegradable footwear suggests it’s making efforts to find alternatives.
