The Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium organises the seventh edition of Craft The Leather, a training project focused on a group of talented young designers from the most prestigious international fashion and design schools.
Craft The Leather aims to promote the Tuscan Vegetable-Tanned Leather, a high-quality product created by the skilled hands of the Tuscan master tanners, and to increase knowledge of this traditional but also extremely versatile product among the new generation of fashion designers, who will be the stylists of tomorrow.
Ten selected students and their teachers will take part in Craft The Leather 2018, representing prestigious schools from all over the world:
- Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo – Japan
- Central Saint Martins. London – UK
- China Academy of Art, Hangzhou – China
- ELISAVA, Barcelona – Spain
- Fashion Institute of Technology , New York – USA
- Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo – Japan
- Pratt Institute – Brooklyn Accelerator, Brooklyn – USA
- Rhode Island School of Design, Providence – USA
- Royal College of Art, London – UK
- Swedish School of Textiles, Boras – Sweden
Craft the Leather 2018: the project
The project will consist of two main phases: the training workshop, in San Miniato from 6th to 12th May 2017, and the designers’ contest with workpieces made of Tuscan vegetable-tanned leather in the next winter.
Next week the group of selected students and their teachers will be welcomed at the Conservatorio Santa Chiara in San Miniato and will spend a week in the heart of the Tuscan Leather District exploring each aspect of the veg-tanning process. They will come into contact with various kinds of vegetable-tanned leather, experiencing the production practices and the design creative process, and will select materials in the tanneries to be used for the final phase of the project: concept and production of a mini-collection of fashion accessories.
Tutor for Craft The Leather 2018 will be Mrs Diane Ellen Becker. Creative consultant, Diane Ellen Becker has worked in the all aspects of the specialty leather business, from visual merchandiser and buyer to designer of high end leather goods and shoes, specializing in international trend research and creative brand identity consultation and formation, both to fashion/design professionals and educational institutes.
