Oversized leather jackets and big fluffy coats – while never really slipping out of fashion – are everywhere right now. Hailey Bieber was recently spotted in Phoebe Philo’s funnel-neck leather jacket; Anya Taylor-Joy jumped on board the one-and-done coat trend courtesy of McQueen; while everyone from Bella Hadid and to Dua Lipa has been spotted in Penny Lane coats in recent months.
But while you would expect to pay upwards of £5,000 for any of the above, what is a surprise is that there are now a number of high-street shearling and leather jackets that won’t leave you much change from £1,000 – if any. Cos has a shearling-lined nappa leather jacket that costs £1,000 (amongst 11 other leather jackets); Arket has a belted leather coat for £729; while Mango recently had a fur-effect coat made from sheep leather on sale for £1,199. Then there was the Kate Moss X Zara leather jacket, priced at £699, which quickly sold out. On the more elevated end of high-street fashion, Jigsaw has its bonded leather coat for £620, Me+Em is selling a leather biker for £995 and Whistles has a reversible leather shearling coat for £1,499.
You could be forgiven for thinking that hefty price tags mean better quality materials and stricter sustainability measures. And in some cases, that’s correct. “Our team has found indicators that the increase in high-street leather jacket prices can be attributed to factors including ethical sourcing, production costs and market dynamics,” Dio Kurazawa, co-founder of the sustainability consultancy company, The Bear Scouts, says.
Still, “expensive is not always better,” warns Ginnie Chadwyck-Healey, founder of The Fairground, an e-commerce site that celebrates brands with green credentials. The expert contends that clothes should be priced fairly – but that we need to know where our money is actually going. “Quality, transparency, local production and ethical sourcing should command a price; it’s learning the difference between true values that justifiably command a higher price, and blatant profiteering,” she says. “If a high-street brand, which prides itself on a business model that is fast paced, and drops new collections on a weekly basis, then wants me, the customer, to believe their shearling jacket is worth such a hefty leap to £1,000 – well show me loud and clear how it is worth that.”
But how to work that out? Brands’ own websites are a starting point. Everlane, for example, lists the costs of labour, transport, material and tax for each of its items, while Reformation has its own RefScale, a tool that tracks the environmental footprint of each garment, by adding up things like the pounds of carbon dioxide emitted, gallons of water used, and pounds of waste generated.
Arket lists supplier information for each item (something it has done since launch in 2017) and is audited by a non-profit organisation that monitors workers’ rights, while the leather itself is chrome-free – meaning it is made without the toxic heavy metal that’s often used within the tanning process. But, the H&M group (which includes Cos and Arket) says on its website that by 2030, it “aim[s] to source all our leather from farms with good animal welfare practices and that are deforestation and conversion free [meaning the land hasn’t been converted from another purpose]”. Subtext: it’s not there yet.
Meanwhile, Inditex, the parent company of Zara, has no information specifically about its leather sourcing online – although it does have an animal welfare policy that lacks detail, but says it only uses animal products from animals that have been treated ethically and responsibly.
Kurazawa adds a word of caution for any brand offering sustainability claims. “Scepticism remains; studies indicate that 42 per cent of responsibility claims may be misleading or exaggerated, highlighting the importance of verifiable evidence supporting claims, such as third-party audits.” He is a fan of groups such as Sedex – which helps companies build socially and environmentally sustainable supply chains, and “plays a crucial role in verifying these claims and promotes genuine improvements rather than superficial marketing”.
Me+Em (which reports its leather as coming from the by-product of the food industry, with garments made in the UK) is a member of the Ethical Trade Initiative and Sedex. Likewise, Whistles, Jigsaw and Arket use animal skins from certified Leather Working Group tanneries, with all its suppliers audited by Sedex. “Our supplier partner is a gold-rated tannery,” Camille Sullivan, product director at Whistles, says. “They have invested in new and innovative tanning methods which use 30 per cent less water and chrome versus conventional leather tanning processes, and guarantee non-formation of any chromium 6 [a highly toxic form of chromium]. All production residues are treated and recycled, including water and biomass.”
All these extra steps cost money – and bumps up the price for the consumer. But if you’re going to drop £1K on a leather jacket, there are some brands that take it even further. Citizens of Humanity, for example, has its £1,650 leather pilot jacket, with leather that CEO Amy Williams says it can “track all the way back to the slaughterhouse, allowing the company to confirm that only ethically sourced products reach the customer”.
Similarly Reformation, which has an oversized bomber for £658, is working to trace the hides it uses back to the farm level (four steps of the supply chain), making sure zero-deforestation policies are in place, while supporting farmers pioneering traceability programmes, responsible land management and regeneration work. It adds that it uses vegetable tanning – rather than toxic chrome tanning (which 90 per cent of the world’s leather uses) to reduce its environmental impact. Meanwhile, Stockholm-based brand Deadwood upcycles existing leather (see its oversized, cropped Dormi style priced at £511); Parisian label Nour Hammour has adopted a made-to-order business model, meaning no surplus stock (such as for its £1,295 It Girl style); as has new London label Doné (its £1,240 Misha jacket is handmade by family ateliers, with hides traced back to source).
While the heftier high street price tags could reflect strides in the right direction, it’s clear that plenty more work needs to be done across the industry – when it comes to both environmental impact, and the treatment of garment workers. Sustainability campaigner Orsola de Castro warns that the elevated prices on the high street might confuse consumers into thinking that it means better quality and more sustainable products, even if that’s not necessarily the case. If there’s any doubt, asking more questions is key. “Do not let them greenwash you,” she says. “Even if it says it’s made in the UK, ask where, and what are the conditions. It is our responsibility to know exactly what we are wearing – and how it got there.”