Known for its luxury products, international
famous designer brand Gucci has teamed up with Safilo to launch a whole new line of eco-sustainable eye gear. Not only this, the duo is taking it to another level by announcing a new packaging especially designed for this eco-friendly line. The eyewear catalog too, will be made out of FSC-certified paper. As of now, Gucci and Safilo will launch the four new models in August 2011.
Gucci eyewear, made of improved acetate, outlives the traditional acetate-based optical frames having a much higher percentage of eco-friendly materials. The new acetate in fact is specially designed for Gucci in two colors giving consumers a choice between red/green backgrounds, quite in sync with Gucci"s iconic color combination.
The bio based Gucci sunglasses are made from a castor-seed material to step up the eco-quotient in its own right. These sunglasses though plastic-based outperformed the others by their natural origins helping cut down CO2 emissions in the production stage itself.
Some critics have questioned the manner in which Gucci has gone about introducing this product. Finding it somewhat hypocritical when brands that are generally not "eco" at all, decide to launch something "eco", saying it feels like they are doing it for marketing reasons alone. (Even if it is for marketing reasons, it"s not a bad thing.) Hardcore environmentalists would prefer to see brands making permanent changes, rather than short lived eco collections.
Ideally, Gucci would announce the eco sunglasses line as a pilot collection, and then phase out all of their non-eco-friendly eyewear in the next few years, in favor of the new eco products. They"d also make some announcements about how they are cutting their use of resources, implementing more recycling, using less packaging, ensuring all production is ethical, etc.
If you"d like to see more brands putting in long term plans to overhaul their businesses and make them more sustainable, ethical, and eco-friendly, let us know at wikifashionista.com. This could be the start of something big, and why not have one of the largest luxury brands lead the way?
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fashionable accessories and eyewears at Wikifashionista.com
