vegetan
nounEtymology Blend of vegetable + tan.
1
Vegetable-tanned leather, typically cow skin tanned using plant-derived tannins rather than chemicals.
- Vegetan is a stiffer leather that takes tooling very well, but it is easily damaged by water without further treatment.
2
A synthetic microfibre, intended to be used as a vegan substitute for leather.
- Today, its shoes are made from 'vegetan' and chrome-free leather (chrome is usually used in the dyeing process) for the uppers,2006, "Eco hero: Galahad Clark", Telegraph.co.uk, Sep 12, 2006