The leather industry has yet again released a manifesto urging the forthcoming climate COP29 to to recognise the cyclical, climate-efficient nature of leather and its potential for a positive contribution to reducing the climate impacts of consumer products. If consumers are not told the true story of leather, they may simply opt for cheaper, short-lived synthetic products, driving consumption of fossil fuels and waste, it exhorted. texfash turns the Spotlight on leather this week to highlight the “nonsensical claims of agenda groups,” as it probes some issues, gleans more on some innovations working to make this natural material more planet-friendly, and a lot more.

World Cotton Day — held annually on 7 October — is an opportunity to highlight the role of cotton in creating jobs and maintaining economic stability in cotton-producing countries, says the World Trade Organization. As the week unfolds, this edition of Spotlight looks at the global cotton industry through different prisms.

The last few years have seen a deluge of reports about the subject of rampant dumping of textile waste in a number of African countries. While the resultant outrage is understandable, and even justified, the broader public discourse has virtually ignored the other side of textile waste exports: the second-hand clothing sector that both provides affordable fashion and supports livelihoods. Not all textile imports are waste, and the viewpoints of African traders have been lost in the din whipped up by Western activists. This series is about those unheard voices.