Stella McCartney

Four years after a splashy launch around the G7, the CEO-powered climate drive says it’s gearing up to accelerate action. But it has lost high-profile members and so far delivered little more than a handful of pilot projects.

Leather alternatives have been boosted as eco-innovation and dismissed as mere plastic, but the truth is more complicated than that and demands clearer marketing to avoid misleading consumers.

The luxury industry is divided on secondhand goods, with the likes of Balenciaga launching branded resale programmes even as top-end Chanel and Hermès hold out.

Read the latest BoF Insights report to get BoF’s perspective on designer bags and small leather goods, covering key competitive shifts, including what, why and how consumers buy in the US and China, the category’s biggest markets.

For the first time, brands including Stella McCartney, Balenciaga and Hermès are bringing products made of buzzy mushroom-based materials to market, a critical test for whether the next-generation fabrics could one day hit the mainstream.