Leather Alternatives

This year leather has become a fashion staple again with that in mind, leather has always been considered a luxury fabric. Some of us know that leather is not only expensive but is very damaging to the environment and animal well fair. In recent years there has been a shift in the fashion industry with brands switching towards using leather alternatives. With technological advancement to lead the way to faux leather there is no surprise that these faux leathers are also environmentally sustainable. These have already hit the market with brands like Stella McCartney and Adidas integrating this into their collections.

When you are looking for a vegan leather its quit hard to find out what’s out there on the market.

Starting off with the most used faux leather on the market, PU leather mostly referred as pleather( plastic leather). This was one of the first leather alternatives to ever be made with a very similar properties as animal leather. Unfortunately it is not an ecological substitute but companies that do use is do try and use solvent- free PU or bio- based PU instated of petroleum. There are other ways of making PU more sustainable and that is using recycled polyester and organic Cotton.

PU Property’s

Water resistance

High abrasion resistance

Soft

Stain resistance & easy to clean

Leather appearance

Easley dyed

Coconut Leather is quit a new faux leather that is made from the by-product of the coconut industry and that use the waste – water that is not used for the harvesting of coconuts. This then the bacteria and water ferment can be reinforced in to sheets with natural fibres and resin. Not only is it very natural but the faux leather can be naturally dyed with some limitations on the colours and prints. The biggest benefit for going to this leather is that it can be placed in a compost to degrade once it is no longer of use. This is a great vegan option.

Coconut Leather Property’s

Durable

Compostable

Mouldable and flexible

Water resistant

Range of thicknesses

Pineapple Leather

Pineapple leather is one of the most spoken faux leather due to the fact that it is very much like real leather. The fabric is called Pinatex and its uses by-product of pineapples. This is wildly used as it can be dyed and be coated with different finishes. The non- woven fabric is great for stitching and brands like Hugo Boss, Rombaut and Bourgeoise Boheme are seen to be using it with in there collections. This leather also produces 20% less waste then animal leather production.

Pineapple Leather Property’s

Durable

Can be dyed

Coatings & limited texture applications

Lightweight

Easily cut & Stitched

Mushroom Leather

A company called MycoWorks , have researched into mushroom leather. They have experimented in a lab where it’s a very controlled environment that they are able to grow Mushrooms or mycelium leather to any desired size resulting in no excess waste. Even though it is currently gown in to sheets they are still trying to see if they can mould it in any shape they want. The production process is claimed to be carbon free and takes far less time than animal based leather.

Mushroom Leather Property’s

Flexible

Water resistant

Breathable

Light yet insulating

Biodegradable

There are many leather alternatives, for expel cork leather, Cactus leather and wine leather. There are so many different companies out there working on how can reduce animal produced leathers , but these are the most used in the industry and most reached so if you do want to follow the leather trend you can look out for these alternatives when you next go shopping. The industry keeps on improving and moving towards better chooses and so we hope that this leather become are norm in the future.

#leather #fashion #vegan