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I’m 40% vegan!

Published: October 5, 2022

ILM Content Director Martin Ricker reflects in the September/October 2022 issue of the magazine on the need for clear messaging around leather.

Cotance calls on EU to regulate use of term ‘leather’

Published: June 11, 2020

The Confederation of National Associations of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community (Cotance) said it has called on Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, to take up the regulatory development of the term ‘leather’, as part of the industry support measures following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Automated leather perforation from Teseo

Published: June 10, 2019

Italian leather cutting and software technology provider Teseo has introduced a new automated leather perforating machine called UPP.

Rise in so-called ‘eco-conscious’ online searches

Published: March 18, 2019

Global fashion search engine, Lyst, says it saw a +66% increase in searches for sustainable fashion, with footwear and denim as the two key categories.

Automotive leather – a modern and sustainable industry

Published: January 31, 2019

Last year, a stakeholder group called Drive Sustainability, which is made up of leading global OEMs, published a report called Material Change. The report assessed what it considered to be 37 risk materials used in the automotive industry, including leather. Inspired by the excellence delivered by the automotive tanneries, theSauerReport and ILM commissioned an in-depth report to assess and redress some of the concerns raised in the Material Change report and the negative portrayal of the leather industry as a high-risk material in a number of categories.

Cotance reacts to Helsinki Fashion Week’s decision to ban leather

Published: August 28, 2018

The European Confederation of the Leather Industry (Cotance) has called on the Nordic Fashion Week Group to reconsider its decision to ban leather from its shows as of 2019.

Think of the animals and be surprised

Published: August 1, 2018

When I go for a walk from my home, built some 250 years ago in the English countryside, I have two choices. One way I can walk for many kilometres over arable land, where almost every area has been taken to grow a wide variety of constantly rotating crops. In the other direction, a long walk towards the coast over land which is largely at sea level or below; I go through long term grassland and light scrub, lightly grazed by sheep or, far more frequently, cattle.

Attacking bonded leather

Published: February 21, 2017

Just seven days ago, I used this column to discuss a two-year-old UK advertising case to discuss definitions of leather and issues with what gets called "bonded" leather. Within an hour, by pure coincidence, a colleague sent me a copy of an article from the U.S. on exactly the same subject.

The power and importance of definitions

Published: February 16, 2017

In July 2015, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK made a ruling about the advertising for a “Leather Corner Suite”. The purchaser who bought the suite said that while it had been advertised as leather, it was actually what is known as “bonded leather”, and calling it leather was misleading.

The National Leather Collection

Published: February 2, 2017

The first phase of the relocation of the famous leather education and history activities to the centre of Northampton, situated in the East Midlands of England, is underway. It's February 1 and we are high up in a busy Shopping Centre above the ancient Market Square, where the Museum of Leathercraft has been given two huge floors. Only it is not the Museum of Leathercraft any more: it is now called the National Leather Collection.