Exotic appeal

摘要

In May this year, luxury brand Hermes became the latest company forced to defend its use of leather. At its annual general meeting in Paris, a representative of an animal rights group accused the French brand of sourcing the ostrich leather used in some of its handbags from a farm in South Africa that had been caught on video mistreating live birds. Hermes responded by insisting that it only sources ostrich leather from tanneries rather than farms and has no relationship with the offending establishment. This publicity stunt on behalf of the campaign group highlighted the importance of transparency and traceability to the leather industry as a whole and perhaps even more so when it comes to exotics.