Gucci has announced a veritable multi-faceted partnership with The RealReal, which includes a special Gucci e-shop stocked with consignors’ items as well as a merchandise brought in directly from Gucci.
The Florentine house is also the first to incentivize shoppers to buy and consign its goods on TRR: For every Gucci item purchased or sold, The RealReal will plant a tree through One Tree Planted, a non-profit working on global reforestation.
Julie Wainwright, The RealReal’s founder and CEO, described the partnership as being rooted in sustainability.
Aside from the fact that TRR’s great deals and hard-to-find runway pieces, the site’s biggest contribution to fashion has been elevating the concept of secondhand fashion and promoting it as a more sustainable way to shop, namely by giving clothes a “second life” (or third or fourth).
Recall that, earlier this summer, it released its first experiment in circularity, Gucci Off the Grid, a line of accessories and streetwear made from recycled and regenerated fibers.
True circularity requires “closing the loop” by taking back a product when a customer is done with it and either recycling, upcycling, or reselling it. That’s surely the next step for many brands, Gucci included, but until it’s logistically possible, the best-case scenario is that an item is given to a friend or resold on a consignment site like The RealReal.
“Gucci is at the forefront of driving the fashion industry to become more sustainable, so having them recognize the role of resale and The RealReal in creating a more sustainable future is really powerful,” Wainwright says. “By encouraging their community to shop resale, Gucci will help us bring more people into the circular economy and show that resale is complementary to brands.”
Wainwright also addressed the industry’s current problems of excess merchandise and barely-worn clothes being thrown away: “We have to get people thinking about the life cycle of what they buy. One garbage truck’s worth of textiles is landfilled or burned every second. Fashion can’t continue being disposable—we have to buy things that are well made and resell [them] when we’re done with them. Partnering and collaborating directly with brands, as we are with Gucci, is a meaningful way for us to harness their influence to increase exposure to the importance of circular fashion.”
The Gucci and TRR shop will have a constant rotation of gently-used items, but Sasha Skoda, The RealReal’s head of women’s, predicts its loafers and sneakers will go the fastest. During COVID-19 lockdowns, those comfortable shoes—along with Gucci tracksuits and hoodies—surged in popularity. With the holidays coming up, she also expects gift-able Gucci items that “spark joy,” like scarves, jewelry, and cross-body bags, to be popular.
And while it’s too soon to expect Gucci’s spring 2020 collection to be on The RealReal yet—it’s only been in stores for a few months—the more pared-back, minimalist look jibes with a broader trend Skoda reported last month. “For the past year, it’s been all about maximalism, but when COVID-19 hit, we saw it take a backseat to stealth luxury,” she said at the time. “Shoppers are trading bold, logomania pieces for more timeless classics. Those may feel more appropriate for the current climate, and they’re also smart investments.
Based on the strength of the shifts we’ve seen, like the nearly five-times greater demand for understated bags versus statement bags, we believe this will be a lasting trend.”
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