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Blue Jeans in the Tannery

Free leather experimentation lurches toward denim.

Stretched Leather

Some friends who run Ecco Leathers in the Netherlands invited us to come down to their state-of-the-art tannery (the only one of its kind dedicated entirely to R&D and leather innovation) to join a crew of designers participating in their semi-annual creative workshop.  The idea was pretty simple.  Let some folks who don't usually have access into their kitchen to try stuff and see what new directions might be developed.  Besides engineering premium leathers for Ecco Shoes, with whom they share a name, they also work with Coach, Lancel, Camper, Adidas, Nike, and a host of others.  But we weren't down there as a customer, we were there to get dirty in their sandbox.

Most of the 2-day session was spent experimenting with their wide range of premium hides (cow, yak, camel...) but a splinter faction did manage to break away in order to see what would happen to a pair of our Japanese Virgin Selvedge Cutters if they were subjected to normally leather-only tanning techniques.  Tumbled in oils and stuffed with fats and waxes... -that sort of thing.  We're waiting for the jeans to arrive back at our studio to see the result  We'll keep you posted.

Tannery Section