Nine students head to Tuscany for 2016 Craft The Leather programme
29/04/2016
Craft The Leather is an outreach project in which the Consorzio invites teachers and students from leading fashion schools around the world to come to Tuscany and experience veg-tanned leather first hand. Representatives of nine fashion schools in Europe, the US and Asia will travel to Italy this year to take part in the programme from May 2-8.
After spending a week talking to tanners, technicians and designers, under the tutelage of programme leader, Florence-based design professional and specialist in international and creative studies, Diane Becker, the students will go home and prepare a new three-piece collection of their own using veg-tanned leather, combining any three items from shoes, accessories, jewellery and hats. A panel of judges will assess the entries towards the end of the year and present an award to the one they like most at an industry show in early 2017.
“The aim of Craft The Leather is to promote this excellent Tuscan material that is made by the skilled hands of of the master tanners in the leather cluster around Santa Croce sull’Arno,” the Consorzio said on announcing the start of the 2016 programme. “We want young design students, who will be the leading designers of tomorrow, to get to know this traditional but extremely versatile material.”
The nine schools represented in the 2016 programme are: Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery, Tokyo; Istituto Europeo di Design, Rome; Kookmin University, Seoul; the University of Northampton; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Royal College of Art, London, and Slem, Waalwijk.
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