The creation of sustainable fabrics was Giorgio Armani’s passion project, and now the first item of clothing has been produced from his Apulia cotton initiative.

For a number of years before he passed away in September, Giorgio Armani had become ever more vocal about the importance of environmental issues and his desire to promote a more sustainable approach to fashion. In 2020 the designer bemoaned the fact that luxury fashion was producing too much too quickly of insufficient quality, items that were not designed for longevity but to satisfy a manufactured desire for newness. In an open letter published in Women’s Wear Daily he called for a slowdown by the luxury companies, arguing that, “Luxury cannot and must not be fast.”

As a result of Armani’s commitment to change there have been many sustainability initiatives at the Italian firm, including a programme of using recycled materials when building new stores; environmental and social projects such as Acqua for Life, which aims to provide access to a safely managed water supply to people in countries affected by shortages; and the inauguration in 2022 of the Armani Values website, dedicated to corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues across the brand.

One of the company’s most innovative ventures is the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project, launched in 2023. This is a collaboration with the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, two organisations founded by our own King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales.

The Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project set out to explore the possibility of developing agroforestry-based cotton production by cultivating a site in Italy to test whether it would be viable. The aim was to see if it would be possible to grow cotton for fashion in a more sustainable way.

At the launch, Armani said: “In fashion, everything begins from the material. All my designs start with the choice of fabric. But the textile industry is one of the sectors with the greatest impact on the planet and that is an issue that cannot be neglected.”

Two years down the line and the signs are looking good. “Regenerative fashion is finally becoming a tangible reality thanks to this project,” says Federico Marchetti, formerly the chairman and CEO of the online luxury fashion firm Yoox (which became Yoox Net-a-Porter Group) and now the chairman of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force.

Cotton was gradually sown with a mix of other crops, such as peach, poplar, pomegranate, carob, fig and mulberry trees, over an area of just over five hectares (12 acres). This “regenerative” agricultural process aims to promote an improvement in soil quality and a reduction in water consumption, chemical use and emissions. It has already resulted in four scientific papers and two harvests: 2,400kg of regenerative cotton in year one and 3,000kg in year two.

This in turn has led to the production of the first Armani garment made entirely from regenerative cotton — a short-sleeved crew-necked T-shirt, available in blue or white. About a thousand of these have been released, made from the first year’s crop. They cost £350 and each has a digital passport and a QR code to guarantee traceability and authenticity. The specially designed blue velvet paper packaging is also made from recycled materials, and the entire supply chain has the Regenagri international regenerative agriculture certification.

Giuseppe Marsocci, who took over as CEO of the Armani Group in October, recognises that a thousand T-shirts is a modest start, but considers the project to be hugely important: “The Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project is a pioneering initiative … Its results are already the subject of scientific study, and very concretely it translates into a simple, everyday garment. We are proud of this first result and will continue to work in this direction, so that this pilot project — currently on a small scale — becomes a foundation for making our fashion increasingly sustainable.”

But its significance right now for the fashion industry is not just to do with how to tackle environmental concerns. The announcement earlier this month of the results of the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project is the first indication since the company’s founder passed away of how things will play out at Armani. Towards the end of his life, the designer spoke of how he had put in place measures to ensure that the brand he founded in 1975 would continue to uphold his values and vision. At its launch, he described the Apulia scheme as “a bold and innovative project and one that is particularly meaningful for me and my company… [that] is an important step and will also have a real impact on local communities”.

Today, Marsocci makes it clear that he is there to steer the ship in the same direction, saying that the T-shirt launch expresses a wider ambition: “In line with the specific wishes of its founder, the Armani Group is committed to ensuring that its business is sustainable and that profit is never achieved at the expense of the environment.”

Andrea Camerana, Armani’s nephew and the company’s managing director of sustainability, agrees: “Our ongoing commitment is to promote positive change, but we are aware that to have real impact we must start from the foundations, which in fashion means the raw material itself.” Could a simple T-shirt be the beginning of a new fashion eco-system?