MILAN — OTB is making significant strides in its sustainability path.
The Italian fashion group will reveal Tuesday that it is able to provide digital authenticity certificates for all Jil Sander, Maison Margiela and Marni products, starting from the fall 2024 collections.
The insertion of an NFC chip in every garment and accessory and the registration of all products on the Aura Blockchain platform allow OTB to generate the certificates, which will be guaranteed for more than 1.5 million products a year.
OTB, which also owns the Diesel and Viktor&Rolf brands, production arms Staff International and Brave Kid, and holds a stake in the Amiri brand, is a steering member of the Aura Blockchain Consortium.
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“This is an important advance in the OTB innovation process, because it enables us to guarantee greater transparency, new ways of interaction and an increasingly high-profile experience for our luxury brand clients,” said Stefano Rosso, a member of the Aura Blockchain Consortium board and CEO of Marni. “Full-scale adoption of blockchain technology and its integration with our production processes means we shall be able to respond promptly to all the challenges and opportunities presented by future legislation.”
Rosso, who is the son of OTB group founder and chairman Renzo Rosso, was named to the CEO role in May and is also chair of Maison Margiela. He is a board member of the OTB Group and CEO of BVX (Brave Virtual Xperience), the business unit of OTB dedicated to the development of products, content and experiences for the virtual world.
The certificates follow a pilot project involving some of Maison Margiela, Marni and Jil Sander designs. Since the beginning of 2022, the group has already registered approximately 1.2 million products. The NFC chip enables customers to use their smartphone to access the digital authenticity certification, which provides information on the product and its origin.
OTB joined the Aura Blockchain Consortium in 2021, becoming its fourth founding member. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2019 initiated the Aura platform, and were joined in April 2021 by Prada Group and Compagnie Financière Richemont in the Aura Blockchain Consortium, which promotes the use of a single blockchain solution open to all luxury brands worldwide to help consumers trace the provenance and authenticity of luxury goods.
In 2022, OTB joined the Fashion Pact, a further step in sustainability strategy launched in 2021.
Diesel has also been actively committed to a more sustainable road map, joining, for example, the Camera della Moda Re.Crea to manage the end-of-life cycle of products.
Since the launch of the “For Responsible Living Strategy,” in January 2020, Diesel’s denim program has been completely overhauled to implement less impactful practices across the supply chain, from fabrics to treatments. Diesel’s denim crafted from organic, recycled or regenerative cotton has in the last three years grown to 50 percent from 3 percent.