Fortrove News

In the fight against the novel Coronavirus, many fashion companies including Prada and Giorgio Armani have donated ICUs to Italian hospitals and single-use medical overalls respectively. Gucci has now thrown its hat into the ring, donating €2 million. The money will go to supporting two crowdfunding campaigns. CEO Marco Bizzari and creative director Alessandro Michele have penned an open letter that can be read below:

When we met for the first time in December 2014, we were two strangers who by some mysterious alchemy understood each other immediately. Two very different people who came from equally different worlds, but with the same idea: to imagine Gucci in a completely new way. We saw Gucci as a way of saying things that are important to us about what it means to be human. We saw Gucci as the multiplier of an idea of freedom, empathy and equality in affirming one's individuality. The work of these past five years is the result of that idea.

This pandemic calls us to an unexpected task, but it is a call to which we respond decisively, advocating the selfless work being carried out by health professionals, doctors, and nurses who are working on the front lines to help those affected by the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, particularly in our home country of Italy and around the world. By supporting one another, and aiding those among us who are most vulnerable, we will be able to work through and rise above this crisis, even more united than before.

In response to the outbreak, in addition to donations made by our group Kering to organizations in China, Italy and France—we have decided to launch two crowd-fundraising campaigns with a further donation of 2 million euros: 1 million euros to support the valiant efforts of the National Civil Protection Department in Italy in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo; and, the other 1 million euros to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in support of the World Health Organization, through a matching campaign with Facebook.

From tomorrow, we will also be dedicating our Gucci social media feeds to public service announcements by the World Health Organization to help protect the health, safety and wellbeing of all.

Gucci has created a world, open and free: a Gucci global community. We ask all of you to be the changemakers in this crisis, to stand together with us in the fight against the Coronavirus by contributing to one of these crowd-fundraising campaigns donating on gucci.forfunding.it or through the “donate” feature available in the IG stories on www.instagram.com/gucci.

With gratitude,

Marco Bizzarri and Alessandro Michele

Information originally sourced from Esquire.