The zero-waste generation
A group of accessories designers is emerging now with a commitment to zero-waste that is so intense, they are not just willing to use leather offcuts, but they prefer to use this previously undervalued material.
Designers and artists, especially those with small-scale and start-up operations, are making a commitment to zero-waste an integral part of their strategies. Tanners and many finished leather product brands are proud of preventing hides and skins, by-products of the farming, meat and dairy sectors, from going to waste. However, this is not enough for the bag brands set up in recent years by Bea Recoder in Paris and by Iseabal Hendry in the Highlands of Scotland, to name just two of the new zero-waste champions.Inner workings
Originally from Spain, Bea Recoder has spent a decade in France building up experience in accessories design and leather sourcing. Chloé and Paco Rabanne are among the names on her CV. While continuing to work as a freelance designer and consultant for various luxury brands, she decided in February 2021 to launch her own brand, Studio Reco.
She decided from the outset to use her experience of the inner workings of tanneries and leathergoods brands to select as the raw material of her choice the leather deadstock she knew they had lying around in storerooms and warehouses. She also applied successfully to be part of the 2022 cohort of companies that Au Delà du Cuir (ADC) has taken under its wing for the next three years. ADC is an incubator body for leather-sector start-ups in France. It seeks to help these new businesses grow by tapping into the French leather sector’s “knowledge patrimony”.
To earn selection, start-ups have to convince the ADC jury that they are ambitious and capable of creating “unusual, desirable and creative” products. The jury’s conclusion was that Bea Recoder and her bags tick these boxes. She makes her products by stitching together the pieces of leather she is able to source in a patchwork pattern, producing a slightly puffy effect. She says her commitment to using deadstock means she has no option but to make each style limited-edition. She has started out by working only with tanneries she knows well, but she hopes to expand her sourcing and, eventually, to provide a quality outlet for the deadstock of any quality tannery.
A table full of offcuts
Scottish designer Iseabal Hendry’s first experience of working with deadstock leather came when she was studying embroidery as part of her course at Glasgow School of Art. In her second year, nearby leather manufacturer, Bridge of Weir Leather, part of the Scottish Leather Group, sponsored a sustainability project for the students and provided them with material to work with. “We were presented with a table full of leather offcuts,” Ms Hendry recalls. “While everyone rushed to secure the largest pieces, I wondered what would happen to all the slivers of leather deemed too small to be useful. My practice originated as a means of using not just offcuts, but the offcuts of the offcuts.” She worked by weaving and stitching these remnants together, combining the thin strips of leather with cotton. What has emerged from this is a distinctive woven look, inspired by traditional crafts such as basket weaving, roof thatching and even boat building that the designer witnessed and took part in while growing up in the Highlands. And it was to the Highlands she returned after her studies in Glasgow, setting up her business there and perfecting her technique.
Scottish intrecciato
She has now turned this Scottish intrecciato weaving into an interior design practice that centres on bespoke, leather framed panels and a bag collection that has caught the eye of The Crafts Council. This London-based organisation works in a broadly similar way to ADC in France, connecting with craft makers and businesses and helping them to grow. It has named a Top Ten Makers To Watch In 2022, calling them Rising Stars, and Iseabal Hendry is one of them.
It also selected the Highland designer for its Crafting Business programme last year, a five-month business mentoring programme that Ms Hendry describes as “truly fantastic”.
She still receives some offcuts from the Scottish Leather Group and finds that these work particularly well in her interior design projects; it’s a good fit because each commission is unique and each of the offcuts is a one-off. Whole hides, though, that she sources from Tuscany make up the bulk of the raw material she uses in her accessories range. But her commitment to zero-waste remains as firm as ever; using her method, she can make use of practically all of these hides, “with almost no wastage”.
The beauty of the process
Tuscan tanners appeal to her because of the traditional commitment of many of them to using metal-free methods for making leather. “It wasn’t until I found Tuscan veg-tan leather that I fully appreciated the beauty of the process,” she explains. “Working with leather that has no coatings to speak of, other than a natural oiled finish, means there’s no scope for hiding the natural appearance of the hide; the quality truly speaks for itself.” She is a supporter of the region’s veg-tanned leather consortium, the Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata, and says she admires its commitment to sustainability, traceability, social responsibility, certification and to the circular economy.
Iseabal Hendry has said she would like, in future, to source veg-tanned leather from closer to home and is in the process of building up her connections with family-run companies from the UK. She has received some samples and carried out a series of early tests to see how well the material will fit into her way of working. “It’s very different from the Tuscan veg-tan I work with,” she says. “Most of the UK veg-tan leather I’ve sampled is saddlery and bridle leather. It’s a lot thicker than the supple, soft leather I use for accessories.”
She wants to support the UK leather industry and, in so doing, reduce her own carbon footprint as much as possible. She would like her suppliers to be family-run companies and for them to source traceable hides from farms that engage in regenerative practices. She anticipates that it may still take some time for her to source exactly what she’s looking for, but she will persist.
Designer Bea Recoder wants to provide tanners everywhere with a good outlet for their deadstock leather.
Credit: Au Delà du Cuir
Iseabal Hendry currently sources most of her leather from Tuscany but would like to find suppliers in the UK to lower her carbon footprint as much as possible.
Credit: Iseabal Hendry
