LEATHER FASHION DESIGN

INTERVIEW
June 2019

“Tie dye” is the search term which has had the greatest increase in queries over the first quarter of this year, according to a study done by Lyst, a global fashion search engine. From the catwalks to the high street, it symbolises hope and freedom.

SUKUMO LEATHER

Thirteen years ago, Makoto Horii, the son of a Tokyo-based bag maker, met Naoyuki Asai, an artisan indigo dyer of kimono in Kyoto. Traditions were being lost, and as second generation artisans, both men saw their volumes of work declining. The two men decided to join forces to adapt the traditional method of textile dyeing to leather, with the ambition of developing a unique craft.

CRAFT

The cultivation of indigo and the production of indigo dye began in Tokushima in the 10th century. Ever since then, the province where it originated has borne the name Awa, literally Japan blue.

The leaves of the indigo plant are cultivated and harvested there by Yoshiharu Toyama, according to a method designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO since 1978.

The dyeing is performed by Naoyuki Asai in Kyoto, following the traditional method of Japanese batik, which has been tried and tested over the last 600 years. As the climate favours the cultivation of indigo, Makoto Horii sources leather of the finest quality from Spanish or North American tanneries. All types of leather can be dyed in this fashion, although he concedes that chrome tanning provides a longer lasting colour with a greater range of variations. For those who prefer vegetable tanning, Sukumo Leather will consider this method on request, depending on the quantities required.

The skins are plunged into vats more than forty times over one or two weeks, to obtain a blue of a greater or lesser intensity. Sodden with water, they are sometimes dried all night between each bath, because it is the exposure to the air that causes the indigotin molecule to precipitate, creating the intense blue colour.

PRODUCTS

The company supplies the big fashion houses with dyed leather for jackets, bags, or shoes, and collaborates on interior design projects. All the techniques used to dye kimono, such as shibori and itajime shibori (a technique in which fabric is clamped between two pieces of wood), better known as tie-dye, and batik (a technique which uses melted wax to create patterns) are applied to leather. The resulting customized material has ten times the value of raw leather.

For the French version, please click to the link below: https://leatherfashiondesign.fr/fournisseurs-cuirs-indigo/