Leather is one of the best and oldest materials for making products like bags. How it can be ethical to use animal hide for our daily needs?
Can Leather Still be Moral?
No, is the clear-cut response.
Today, "ethical" production takes into account a wide range of factors.
It includes stocking and travel practices, natural resource use, working conditions, and the actual fairness of the deal between producers, owners, sellers, and resellers.
The criteria become more stringent as we examine the supply chain more closely.
"Ethical" is not just a catchall term.
It refers to a comprehensive approach to production, covering everything from pay, breaks, and healthcare to community impact and preventing the exploitation of women and children.
Before even thinking about the welfare of the primary group affected: the animals, ethical leather would have to take all of these effects on the people involved into account.
Ethics takes into account their upbringing, treatment, nutrition, and the manner and timing of their slaughter.
For instance, cows are killed so young that, on average, they only have 18 months left of their 20-year life span before being butchered.
The real query is whether it is ever ethical to kill animals for any kind of utility.
According to a Vogue Business survey, 23% of Americans and 37% of Britons believe leather is "inappropriate in fashion."
Even though the demand for leather was on the rise once more in the 2022 fashion shows, it all comes down to consumer demands.
Specifically, your demands. Leather is under fire in a similar way that the fur trade is, because of animal rights activists' actions, gradually being phased out of luxury labels.
Leather is probably going to be accepted as long as there is a meat industry.
Nonetheless, it is only a matter of time before it declines and undergoes moderation—or transformation—given the serious sustainability issues it raises.
What about Leather Grown in a Lab?
Lab-grown leather is a newly available alternative.
Fashion must consider a future without "real leather" just as the food industry is moving more and more toward non-animal meat for ethical, environmental, and health reasons.
While several startups are developing lab-grown, high-end leather, it is difficult to predict when it will become widely available.
The price will initially be prohibitively expensive.
However, as technology advances and the market shifts, the price of synthetic leather is likely to fall eventually, and we guarantee you will not be able to tell the difference.