materials and ethics
Lets talk a little bit about the ethics behind the clothing (or accessories) we wear, I am by no means an expert, but as I started this journey as a maker, I also started learning about what goes on behind the fashion industry.
I am passionate about slow fashion. What is this? It is basically the opposite of fast fashion. It advocates for principles such as high quality, ethical production that doesn’t harm either human beings or the environment that we live in. Those beliefs tie into how I source my materials, which is why I added this little snippet in here.
-leather-
I use only Vegetable tanned leather, that I purchase locally, that I know was produced ethically, and am able to feel each hide of leather to ensure quality. The majority of our leather originates either from a tannery in Italy that has passed the process down for over 100 years, the United States, or a family owned and operated tannery in South America.
What is Vegetable Tanned Leather?
Leather is one of the oldest natural materials that already our ancestors appreciated. They made clothing and blankets all from the hides of their hunted animals. Since leather is a perishable material, people started early on to develop appropriate methods to stabilise the raw animal hides, and make them more durable. This process is called tanning.
Vegetable tanning is to process the hides in a pure and natural way without using harmful chemicals. The process is used in order to stabilise the skins and be able to process the resulting leather. It is a traditional, artisanal process that takes advantage of the tannic acids naturally found in some plants, by using the barks, branches, leaves or even some fruits in some specific techniques. The actual tanning process takes between one and three months. This process could be accelerated with the addition of synthetic tanning agents, but this is ineligible for purely vegetable leather products.
Tanning starts with a penetration process, leaving the combination of hides and natural tanning acids rest until the tan is well into the leather. The first tan to reach the leather must be weak in concentration and mellow to prevent tanning the surface early on. With pits a counter current system is normal where the hides move through a series of pits in one direction while the liquors move the other way. The hides go through three sets of pits. In the layers each hide is sprinkled with solid tan material. Fermentation and deposition in the hide creates solid leather in only 3 months. The strong liquors from the final pits are gradually moved down the system while the hides move up from weak to strong. At the end the leather is piled for a few days to completely fix the tan.
Why Use Vegetable Tanned Leather?
A distinction is usually made between chemical and natural tanning methods. The most popular and controversial tanning, due to its widespread use in the fashion industry, is chrome-tanning. It is utilized in 85% of global leather production, which means that in most instances leather is no longer a natural product. The use of chromium salts is harmful to the human health and the environment. Despite these significant disadvantages, it is still the most used method in the fashion industry, mainly because this method is faster, cheaper and less material is needed. Moreover, the further processing is much easier and requires less expertise.
I deliberately decided against chrome-tanning and upon the more costly method of vegetable tanning, because the leather it produces is made to LAST. It will not be a product that will only last you a few years, only to be thrown into the landfills, It will be an heirloom, that will only soften and patina with age. it will get more beautiful. I believe that a leather product should be an investment item, that is something you will love for years to come, and want your product to last you throughout those years.
-hardware-
All the Hardware I use is sourced here in Canada, and is solid Brass. Brass will patina with time, but is strong and durable.