While there is a wide range of leather look-a-like products available today, there remain reasons to stick with the real thing. Even though leather imitation is invariably cheaper than its authentic counterpart, it falls down in almost every other way.

To begin with, faux leather accessories will not last. Unlike real leather purses jackets and bags, imitation products wear badly. Plastics become brittle and fragile over time and this means they tear and crack.

Leather can be maintained with cream, balms and oils and this extends the life of the products. Little can be done, on the other hand, to prevent plastics and PVC from fading and disintegrating, and this means you'll be replacing that pleather handbag in no time at all.

While this might not seem too bad to you, given that plastics have a reputation for being cost-effective, you might be surprised at the cost of faux leather products. Often, imitation products are considerably more expensive than authentic ones. In fact, a pleather designer handbag can be more that double, sometimes triple, the price of real leather alternatives.

In short, a genuine leather product is something of an investment. It will last over time in ways that imitation accessories won't and this gives the real thing an edge over plastic any day.