Key takeaways:
Although sales of luxury leather accessories are growing rapidly, and leather ready-to-wear is trending on the runway, leather producers have suffered years of declining prices.
Signs of a shift in consumer sentiment towards leather could exacerbate that problem.
A recent poll found that 37 per cent of people in the UK and 23 per cent in the US think leather is an inappropriate material to use in clothing.
Luxury fashion’s love of leather has never been greater, as the Spring/Summer 2020 runways can attest.
For the second year in a row, Bain expects sales of personal leather luxury goods to grow faster than the luxury goods sector as a whole. “Pure leather continues to be big business in the luxury market,” says Edited analyst Kayla Marci. But a shift in consumer opinion could counter that growth, spelling trouble for leather producers.
There are strong signs that such a shift has already begun on the mass market, with consumers increasingly content with leather alternatives or phasing the material out of their lives altogether.
A poll of 2,000 British and American residents, conducted in September by Morning Consult and shared exclusively with Vogue Business, indicates as much. Around 37 per cent of people in the UK and 23 per cent in the US think that leather is either a “somewhat or very inappropriate material” to use in clothing. Significantly, over 20 per cent of all respondents in both countries said they had changed their mind about the material in the last five years, although the poll did not ask in which direction.
Some objections to leather may be in regard to taste rather than ethical grounds due to the wording of the survey. But a rising backlash against the use of leather in fashion could have a sizable impact on both the leather and fashion industries. In recent years, a growing number of fashion houses, including Gucci, Prada, Coach and Versace, have eliminated animal fur from collections as public pushback has hit a peak, opting instead for synthetics.
The leather industry is a target of PETA, which demonstrated against its use during fashion month and was influential in turning public opinion against fur. California governor Gavin Newsom banned the sale and manufacture of new fur products in the state in October, and the UK Labour party has pledged to do the same if elected in December. With the future of fur setting a precedent, fashion houses may be more likely to hedge their bets that vegan leather is going to win out.
Unsurprisingly, fur was viewed much more dimly by the British and American public. Two-thirds of British adults and 47 per cent in the US deemed the material inappropriate. The fur industry dismissed the results as stemming from a lack of awareness about the provenance of the material and blunt questioning.
“As consumers begin to understand what the sector is doing to demonstrate animal welfare, transparency and traceability, the perception of fur is far more positive,” Mark Oaten, CEO of the International Fur Federation, said in an emailed comment.
Unlike faux fur, leather alternatives have yet to gain traction in luxury fashion. Vegan leather makes up just 2 per cent of women’s leather goods produced by luxury brands, led by Stella McCartney, per Edited. But across the industry, interest is on the rise: according to Lyst, searches for vegan leather increased by 54 per cent in the last quarter.
Brands are beginning to respond. In the last two years, the amount of apparel in UK stores described as vegan increased 180 per cent. Veja launched a biodegradable, vegan version of its popular V-10 sneaker using leather-like corn starch waste in October, responding to customer demand for a shoe not made from animal products. Brands known for using vegan leather, including Nanushka and Awake, are gaining consumer traction.
The “vegan” leather moniker, however, is complicated. Calling fake leather vegan is a favoured luxury brand strategy; its cachet implies the product is a cleaner and environmentally responsible consumer choice. Some leather alternatives are eco-friendly, made from pineapple or apple waste, or recycled plastics. But many more brands use polyurethane and PVC leather — which is cheap, non-biodegradable and derived from fossil fuels — and have started labelling these products as vegan in order to pass them off as sustainable. Supporters of both the fur and leather industries maintain that neither vegan leather nor faux fur are truly sustainable solutions.
The price of real leather, meanwhile, is dropping. While demand for luxury-quality leather remains high, the cowhides used to make cheaper luxury accessories now go for a fraction of the cost they sold for just five years ago. The International Monetary Fund now puts the price of a hide at 36 cents US per pound, down from over a dollar ($1.11) in 2014. “It’s been a difficult couple of years,” says Kerry Senior, director at industry body UK Leather Federation.
A shortage in the number of hides in the US during 2013 and 2014 caused prices to temporarily skyrocket. In response, manufacturers turned to cheaper plastic alternatives, and many opted to stick with them after the price of the real deal came back to its usual levels. Senior says those problems were compounded by the rise of athleisure, which saw many consumers turn to casual sneakers and trainers over leather footwear. (Handbags have taken a hit in the US mass market for similar reasons).
Senior argues that real leather is largely a meat byproduct that would otherwise be wasted. He also objects to the use of the word “leather” to describe alternative materials. “They are riding the image of leather… and at the same time denigrating the material,” he says. He and his organisation hope that luxury’s strong embrace of leather this year trickles down to the mainstream.
“We have to wait and see what the impact of fashion week was and whether that manifests itself more widely than the catwalk,” says Senior.
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