Is it time to give up leather?

Cows have long been farmed to fuel the fast food market. Now, by turning leather into a seasonal fashion, they are becoming part of fast fashion. Soon we will have to kill 430m every year. Lucy Siegle gets to grips with life without leather (well almost)

After months of trotting around with a broken handbag, I finally found somewhere to mend it. It was a basement shop called Clever with Leather in Brighton. The proprietor examined the piece and announced that "cheap yarn" was the problem. He stitched it beautifully and it's now back in service.

Among his heavy-duty machinery for the punching, stitching and repairing of some of the toughest hides known to mankind I spotted a reddish leather embossed bag, such as a New World postman might have carried. It reminded me of the cavernous, buckled handbag my mum once had. This bag (along with her) was a constant reassuring presence at the school gates for the duration of primary school. From it she was always able to produce tissues, change for the bus and hair pins on the occasion of Wednesday night ballet class, like a 1970s Mary Poppins.