That's leather

Textile Exchange has defined "leather" as an entity. The definition assumes significance in the backdrop of many companies using the "leather" suffix to identify their own alternative materials.

• A hide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact and tanned so it does not rot  
• Either with or without hair or wool attached
• Inclusive of hides or skin split into layers or segmented either before or after tanning
• With any surface coating or surface layer no thicker than 0.15 mm.

Just not leathers

‍Materials that do not meet the definition above will not be described by Textile Exchange as leather, regardless of any past designation or common usage of the term.

• There is currently a gap in the legal framing of the classification and naming of the diverse materials sold as alternative materials to leather.
• This leads to misleading labelling where a fossil-based synthetic material could be referred to in the same way as an innovative plant-based material, making it difficult for a consumer to differentiate the two.

Manmade non-fibre materials

Diverse manmade materials, fully or partially plant-based will be grouped in the ‘Manmade non-fibre materials’ category until further legal guidance on the naming & categorisation of these materials is available.