The first step in building an ethical and sustainable wardrobe is through high quality pieces, made to last and designed to be timeless.
OUR LEATHER
We use only the highest grade vegetable-tanned leathers. We choose our leathers, not only for their beauty and quality, but also with environmental impact in mind. We believe that our products should be built to last - not thrown away after just a few seasons - so we use leathers that will age beautifully with continued use.
Leather is an organic substance, so each hide is unique, which means that no two HAF bags are identical. We embrace the tonal variations across skins and the perfect imperfections that make leather such a special material to work with.
VEGETABLE TANNING
Tanning is the process of converting raw animal hides into leather. The vast majority of leather today is produced using a modern method of chemical chrome-tanning, a fast process that was developed to allow for the mass production of leather goods. Chrome-tanning uses a mix of toxic substances and heavy metals which pose a danger to both the environment and the people involved in its production.Vegetable tanning, in contrast, is an ancient method that can only be practiced by skilled craftsmen. It’s a slow process that uses combinations of natural ingredients like tree bark and plant extracts to tan the leather. In Tuscany, where our leather is produced, the leather is tanned in wooden drums using only natural tannins of vegetable origin (mimosa, chestnut and quebracho trees). Vegetable tanning is a time-consuming and expensive process, and very few tanneries have the patience or skill to produce vegetable-tanned leather. However, the end result is an environmentally friendly product, which retains all of its natural beauty.
OUR HARDWARE
We use minimal hardware on our leather products, but the pieces we do use serve both form and function. Our solid aluminium rivets are extra strong and we use them in the areas of the bag that undergo the most daily stress: the handles, straps, and flaps.
OUR MANUFACTURER
Our leather goods are handcrafted in the Andalucía region of Southern Spain in Ubrique, a town with over 400 years of leather manufacturing heritage. Our manufacturing partner is a family run factory, established in 1970. Masters of their craft, they have spent nearly five decades working with luxury brands to design, develop and produce leather goods of the highest quality.
