Ask questions before going in for faux or so-called 'vegan' leather, for most are essentially altogether polyurethane or contain significant amounts of petroleum components.
Circa the late Eighties. I had just discovered khadi kurtas, roughly woven in shades of blue, black, an ombre, and a tangerine too. The bags were either of cloth and now I know some PU or polyurethane leather, which means it was artificial and so peeled off after some time. Little did we know then how harmful these were for both planet and people.
And then come the early Nineties and the ‘genuine’ leather bags from Kolkata were quite the rage. I am sure it was a bustling industry then as the New Markets there had rows and rows of shops selling just those, compared to the three-four I had to hunt for earlier this year. In between all these years one read of the hue and cry PETA made on and off and so for a brief period the leather bags again gave way to stylish woven handbags. I still have one from Nagaland. I’d root for both leather and cloth.
Leather and fabric undergo processes before they reach us, the former a lot more as it is the hide or skin of an animal that has been slaughtered for food and not otherwise as many would have us believe. Leather is a by-product of the meat industry. But riding high on the taint that leather suffers, a whole lot of companies came up with ‘vegan’ leather and umpteen other types ranging from mushrooms to pineapples and cactus.
Don’t go by the tall claims. Invariably some or the other process is done which makes the product majorly synthetic and hence polluting.
It is not easy as a lay consumer to understand the greenwashing that many players indulge in to confuse you, making it difficult for the genuine ones to peddle their wares right. Read the fine print. Ask questions. Demand products that do not contribute to the warming of the planet.
