AllSaints: Long live leather
London-headquartered retailer AllSaints' latest campaign, Long Live Leather, offers insight into the design processes that go into its leather jackets, bags and shoes.
Through interviews with senior designer Solène Fabios, head of bags Christina Rumm and head of footwear Roger Smith, the brand explains how it works with tanneries in India and Turkey, using “premium soft leather”.
Ms Fabios explained they were among the first brands to wash leather, in the 90s, creating distressed looks using rubber tubes and rubber beads. “Leather has fit into the brand’s DNA from day one,” she said. “We still have our strong DNA, but we’ve also diversified our leather to tick different boxes, and that can be more feminine or more directional. We sell a luxury product at a fraction of the price that most luxury brands do.”
The team ensures the shoes feel as good as they look, added Mr Rogers. “We often wash styles or hand-finish uppers to give them that tough lived-in feel. We also use a lot of studs and metalwork – as found on our biker jackets – to give them that rock 'n' roll feel.”
Ms Rumm said she attends leather fairs to prolong her fascination with the material as tanning evolves. “We mix methods of tanning: I love pull-up veg tan lamb, naturally shrunken grains and super-fine, cracked-paper techniques. We mix traditional tanning methods with modern techniques.”
AllSaints is a member of the Leather Working Group.
