Leather "Sustainability"
I often find myself searching through endless brands, shopping sites, and highlighted stories promoting the ideas of sustainable fashion. It gives me a sense of hope, excitement and relief, and also a slight feeling of dread and sometimes true frustration.
“Hot” words or trending titles are what marketing mavens create and tirelessly promote. While I honestly believe the people that use these terms from the beginning are the purest of them all, it’s difficult to ignore how quickly larger companies hop on the bandwagon and use these buzz words to describe EVERYTHING.
Organic, sustainable, farm-raised, grass-fed, eco, recycled. Do all of these terms sound familiar and positively overused? Of course they do. So how do you sort the honest from the exaggerated? I’m not sure I have the answer, but I can promise you I am putting in the hours to try and figure it out.
One example I keep going back to that makes my heart beat more rapidly is how leather is being deemed and advertised as a “sustainable” material. So what’s the truth? Is leather “sustainable” and what does that even mean? Let’s break it down and connect the dots. Do you consider meat to be sustainable? Are the factory farming or animal agriculture industries sustainable? The simple answer is a big fat NO. Animal ag is the leading factor in greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water pollution and a plethora of other environmental problems. Let’s also never ignore the fact that leather comes from living, breathing, feeling, sensitive
and gentle animals who are subjected to daily animal abuse, torture, confinement, and inevitably, death. So, how is it that a product made with any sort of leather is sustainable or eco? The simple answer again, it is not. It is actually incredibly detrimental.
So what’s the takeaway? Pay attention to marketing, connect the dots, and hold brands accountable for the language they use. The word "SUSTAINABLE” by definition, means to maintain at a certain rate or level. We are no longer in the position to sustain, we need to regenerate our planet and reset our standards of what is beautiful. As a start, I can tell you this… cruelty-free is always the most beautiful.