Since Business of Fashion titles its article with a rhetorical question, we take the trouble to answer it. “Should fashion do more to protect animals?” the fashion magazine asks. “Leather’s commitment to animal welfare is there and it shows,” we reply. Which, moreover, we have dedicated a specific in-depth article to the topic in “Misurazione” (measuring, ed), monthly issue 3 – 2023 of La Conceria.
BoF’s question
BoF’s article starts from dangerous premises that it corrects along the way. In a nutshell, the author would expect, in the wake of Gucci‘s farewell to fur, that fashion would initiate a more profound rethinking of its relationship with all materials. Instead, “little is said about animal welfare when it comes to leather,” she objects. Relying mostly on vegan designers and associations from the same parish leads the author to skew the analysis towards their arguments.
But there are some flashes of truth (so to speak). The journalist acknowledges that, while it is true that fashion groups either do not have animal welfare policies or have old ones, it is equally true that “only a few groups have enough visibility to influence the supply chain”. In the sense: a multinational company that makes purchases worth millions of euros can hope to influence a livestock farmer, an anonymous shoe factory is unlikely to succeed. BoF journalist goes on to write that “without tanning, hides would simply be sent to landfill. The material is essentially recycled and regulated by existing standards for the meat industry”.
Our answer: the commitment of leather
Vegans and animal rights activists may not believe it, but the fashion industry – leather industry first and foremost – is committed to the goals of quality and sustainability. Precisely for this reason, those who want to do the job right rely on qualification and certification tools that make the same results concrete and assessable. This is the subject of “Misurazione”, the latest issue of our monthly magazine. Where we talk to entrepreneurs, such as Marco Palmieri of the Piquadro group, and about the performance (beyond the fog of marketing) of materials, about leather and its veg alternatives.
Returning to the question of animal welfare, we have an answer for that too. The tanning industry has been working for long on the traceability of leathers, the first fundamental tool for knowing its origin and history. And it is doing its utmost on a global scale (within the limits of its possibilities, because it is worth repeating that the players in animal husbandry follow their own market dynamics) to ensure animal welfare as well. We talk about this with Gustavo-Gonzalez Quijano (Cotance) and Sabrina Frontini (ICEC).
Click here to browse the summary of “Misurazione”
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