Animal skins have been used for clothing and other luxury materials since time memorial.
Over recent years, animal rights and welfare groups have continued to wage a battle against companies who blatantly use animal hides for their fashion brand products.
Currently, animal-free leather products, such as shoes made from grapes and handbags made from mushrooms, are on the rise.
It is part of the so-called "alt leather" trend that is reportedly taking the fashion industry by storm, paving the way for its mainstream popularity and use.
Animal-Free Leather
Contemporary times have made animal-free leather or plant-based leather (alt leather) to be increasingly mainstream due to a strong and consistent drive towards sustainable fashion and development, according to The Guardian.
Last week, heritage brand Lerins London from Dune founder Daniel Rubin, launched shoes worth £130 shoes made from leather-like material based on grape skins leftover during wine-making.
The company has also been reported to be using leathers manufactured from apples, bananas, and pineapples.
Lerins is only of the growing number of companies such as Allbirds, Hermes, Reformation, and Stella McCartney to deviate away from the cattle industry and promote plant-based leather.
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Lab-Grown Leather
Hollywood actor and environmental advocate, Leonardo DiCaprio, and multinational luxury goods company, Kering, the parent company of fashion brands like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Saint Laurent, invested in the California-based lab-grown leather startup VitroLabs, as reported by The Guardian.
As an alternative to animal hides, lab-grown leather is reportedly made through the cultivation of stem cells, as a means to replicate animal skins.
Nevertheless, it is expected to be as strong and reliable as conventional leather.
Leather Industry
Since the onset of industrialization in the 18th century, humans have increased the use of animal-based leather to incorporate them in their lifestyle.
According to the Australian animal protection organization, Animals Australia, leather is everywhere due to the rise of the leather industry, which has been responsible for producing fashion or accessories, from belts, boots, car seats, and keyrings.
The organization has provided a list of the most common animals, mostly cattle, where hides are taken from:
- Crocodiles
- Goats
- Pigs
- Sheep
- Snakes
- Stingrays
- Seals
- Deer
- Fish
- Kangaroos
- Horses
- Cats
- Dogs
The organization highlights that even baby animals, especially calves, have been reportedly considered by the leather industry as valuable due to the softness of their skins.
The most known methods of animal skinning are castration, branding, and mulesing, as well as the tusk-removal process known as de-horning.
Animal Welfare
The global animal welfare organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is one of the many groups that oppose animal-based leather and promotes animal-free leather alternatives when buying clothing products and other materials.
In the United States alone, PETA underscored those millions of cows and other animals endure the pain of factory farming without any painkillers.
In some cases, the organization claimed that these animals are skinned even while they are conscious or alive.
With the current rise of alt leather into mainstream fashion, the animal-free leather industry is still in its infancy and still faces a multitude of challenges from being just more than a trend.
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