Ferragamo Maps Leather Origins, Leading Sustainability Push in Luxury Fashion

Italian luxury brand Ferragamo has announced it can now trace the country of origin for approximately 80% of the leather used in its coveted footwear and handbags, marking a significant milestone in the fashion industry’s sustainability journey.

The announcement comes amid increasing pressure from European Union regulations requiring fashion brands to account for materials throughout their supply chains. The family-run, publicly traded fashion house has been publishing sustainability reports for over a decade, but its 2025 report released on March 31 is the first to include concrete figures on material traceability.

“We have been using leather in a more sustainable way,” James Ferragamo, the brand’s chief product officer and grandson of founder Salvatore Ferragamo, told The Associated Press. “I think it is one of the more sustainable materials in my point of view.”

According to Ferragamo, most tanneries working with the brand “control their water, have fair treatment of the workforce, monitor their supply chain ensuring that they’re buying leather from those who are not deforesting, and taking the right approach also in terms of breeding and animal welfare.”

Industry experts consider material traceability a crucial first step for fashion sustainability, particularly as the EU implements a new framework requiring brands and their suppliers to ensure products are sustainable from conception through end-of-life disposal. While the specific terms are still being defined, compliance will be phased in over the coming years.

“Traceability is an essential factor, but it’s not sufficient,” explains Francesca Romana Rinaldi, a sustainability expert and director of the Monitor for Circular Fashion at SDA Bocconi School of Management. “It enables the implementation of sustainability and circularity.”

Rinaldi emphasized that companies not tracking their materials “don’t know their supply chain” and “could be criticized for greenwashing.”

The EU regulations are moving toward full circularity, including measures to extend product lifecycles through repairs and end-of-life management such as recycling and upcycling. Additionally, the EU is phasing in restrictions on destroying unsold apparel, accessories, and footwear for companies with more than 250 employees and annual revenues exceeding €40 million ($46.8 million).

Ferragamo, founded in 1927 by Salvatore Ferragamo after his return from Hollywood where he established himself as a shoemaker to stars like Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, remains primarily a footwear and leather goods maker. These products comprised 86% of the company’s 2025 sales of €976.5 million ($1.1 billion).

The company launched its leather traceability initiative with the calf leather used for its Fiamma bag, tracing it from breeding to assembly. In 2025, Ferragamo enlisted tanneries supplying 80% of its hides to identify countries of origin through supplier declarations.

“Today there is not one single solution, one single technological solution to trace the leather to the birth farm of the cows,” said Davide Triacca, Ferragamo’s sustainability director. “We got to that result through a very dedicated and consistent approach and today we are able to trace more than 80% of the entire leather that we supply and the vast majority of which comes from Europe.”

When including textiles such as cotton, silk, and nylon, the company reports that 81% of its materials are certified under third-party sustainability standards.

While the EU does not currently require leather traceability, sustainability experts note that approaches based on country-level mapping and supplier declarations reflect an early stage of traceability rather than establishing a full chain of custody.

Ferragamo has a history of material innovation dating back to World War II, when material scarcity pushed the founder to experiment with alternatives like wicker and cork. More recently, the brand included a capsule collection with textiles made from orange fibers in 2017, used nylon from castor oil instead of fossil oil for a men’s tote bag, and created its Back to Earth collection featuring the trademark Hug handbag treated with vegetable dyes.

“Research keeps on going. It’s something that we’re doing all the time,” Ferragamo said. “We’re trying to find different ways of creating different materials. And sometimes the materials that we produce are not ready for market. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t experiment.”