RUTIGLIANO, Italy — The words “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself” are attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his quote was recalled on Wednesday as a reminder that effective soil management programs are essential for the future.
The Giorgio Armani Group has taken the iconic U.S. president’s words to heart, unveiling the first results of the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project, supported by the fashion group and first unveiled in June 2023.
Reflecting just how important the project is for the Armani group, the newly minted chief executive officer Giuseppe Marsocci made his first public appearance to support its unveiling. He was flanked by Andrea Camerana, the group’s sustainability managing director, and Federico Marchetti, chairman of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Fashion Task Force.
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The project, focused on the development of agroforestry-based cotton production, billed as among the first of its kind, is also promoted by the SMI Fashion Task Force in collaboration with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, led by scientist Marc Palahí. Both were founded by King Charles III in his former role as the Prince of Wales, and coordinated by the European Forest Institute (EFI) together with CREA, the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics of Italy, and with Pretaterra.
“We feel a strong sense of responsibility in committing to and advancing this project,” said Marsocci on Wednesday, at the CREA headquarters in Rutigliano, in the countryside near Bari in Apulia. “When this is matched with a successful business, it becomes excellent.”
To wit, while underscoring that this was only a first step and a test in the future scalability of the project, Marsocci said the T-shirts made with the first crops of cotton, in stores since July 17, “are a success,” touting their sell-through, “better than other seasonal products, when many winter items were already in the stores.” Sales associates are trained to explain the research and development behind these T-shirts, added Marsocci.
The fact that they were produced for the signature Giorgio Armani label and retail at 350 euros shows how the project was intended to be high-profile and positioned in the top range of the group’s fashion lines, which also include Emporio Armani and A|X Armani Exchange.
Camerana touted the scientific base at the core of the project, thanked King Charles and in particular recalled how the late Giorgio Armani “was very committed and enthusiastic about this project from the very first moment, acutely feeling the needs of the planet. He regularly asked us about the progress made.” As a personal memory, Camerana, Armani’s nephew, said he has a photograph of the designer captured with the very first bouquet of the cotton bulbs grown in Apulia.
Marchetti, the former chairman and CEO of the Yoox Net-a-porter Group, who has been sitting on the board of the Armani Group since 2005, also enthused about the late designer, who died in September. “This is a long-term project, and it’s incredible how far-sighted he was, thinking years into the future,” he said.
The first T-shirts were produced in a number of 1,000 and are entirely certified through a digital passport.
Again, Marchetti said that Armani “embraced both my views for this project, which were to develop regenerative fashion and to introduce digital passports.”
The entrepreneur said that cotton is the fabric most used by the group, hence the focus on it, and added that, given how “Armani is a symbol of Italian excellence, the project had to be based in Italy,” while many cotton-focused initiatives are usually set outside the country, from Africa to Bangladesh.
He also touted the industrial scalability. “This is a dream come true because it’s one thing to have an idea, it’s something else to see it executed.”
The project aims to test and scientifically assess new ways to implement sustainable cotton production in Italy, to demonstrate how to enhance landscape diversity, water saving and soil fertility as well as biodiversity-related ecosystem services while producing cotton with a low carbon footprint through the use of agroforestry systems.
The initiative ensures traceable and resilient value chains as well as the safety of resources.
Apulia has a mild climate, which creates the perfect environment to grow a great diversity of agricultural crops, and this project contributes to the reintroduction in the region of a long tradition of cotton farming, which dates back to the Middle Ages.
The initial cotton planting on one hectare of land started in 2023, producing 2,400 kilos of regenerative cotton. The following year, production was 3,000 kilos from three hectares, and in 2005, 5,000 kilos were reaped from five hectares. Marsocci expects products made from cotton yielded in 2024 to be distributed in the fall of 2026.
“This project is a scientific blueprint which leads us to the second phase, the industrial objective of scalability and is an example for other fashion houses. This is the first regenerative cotton made in Italy,” said Marchetti.
Camerana also pointed to the impact on the community and the pipeline, in alignment with the Armani Values sustainability strategy established in 2021, “People, Planet and Prosperity,” contributing to bolstering the supply chain from cotton ginning to weaving and so on.
“Ginning was no longer done in Italy; we found one artisan that does in it Sicily, and in 2026 we will have it done also in Apulia,” said Rossella Ravagli, head of corporate social responsibility at the Armani Group. Ravagli underscored that each phase of the project has been audited externally and received the appropriate certifications.
“Over five years since 2023, this farm site is among the first field experiments in Europe testing agroforestry cotton with alternative tree species and regenerative practices. Regular scientific reports will evaluate the properties of the cotton yielded and will assess the environmental impacts and production levels of the different plots established,” Ravagli continued, helping to show off the crop by accompanying a group of journalists on a tour through the fields.
The project entails improved biodiversity conservation; reduction of emissions and chemical substances; improved health of the soil, and reduced use of water.
