ECCO X MARTINA SPETLOVA BESPOKE LEATHER DESIGN
Role: Leather designer
Over 3 seasons, I collaborated with fashion designer Martina Spetlova to develop innovative leather and new leather design techniques for her fashionable collection. This collaboration has been complete happiness.
David Altmejd, The Eye, 2015
Throughout the experience of working together, I was always induced by the capabilities of transforming the materials into avantgarde fashion items. For each project, I was briefed with her concepts, images or art references and would start to develop leather in ways that might look like what she is requesting. For this season, the inspiration came from David Altmejd, the Canadian sculptor - a blur between interior, exterior and identity. From this image, I started to explore colour and the techniques I could include to imbue that feeling of raw and luxury.
Prototyping
This requires many different steps:
Selecting the correct leather crust to be used for garments - something smooth and drapey but still with a slight structure to be able to maintain shapes, if necessary. The process involves constant collaboration - as I developed a colour and feel, I would send the options to the client for approval or feedback on what needed to be developed further. After developing the material and the colour, I would start to add new finishing touches - a three-dimensional emboss, hand-sprayed parts and also calculate how much would be possible to get out of each skin.I was in contact with Martina every quarter of the year to design and develop innovative leathers for her merchandise for the following season.
