INTERVIEW WITH DORCAS
Tell us about the inspiration behind your project:
I want to make a positive impact in the leather world, so my project was inspired by the marginalised women of Zimbabwe that have resorted to craft as a means of income for their families. I want to offer the weaving craft community a leather fashionable designing experience.
One of the major organisations that aid the rural folk weaving industry under ‘The Woven Basket Export Program’ is ZimTrade, Zimbabwe’s governing body for export promotion. Thankfully, I have networked with Zimtrade and they have offered their support. While using reeds to weave baskets these women produce excellent products with little return for their hard work. By incorporating vegetable tanned leather instead of just reeds and grasses the final product is anastatically and qualitatively enhanced, leaving women in the rural areas with better financial rewards for their hard work.
Global trends are gravitating towards sustainable eco-systems. Vegetable tanning offers eco-friendly leather with an easy end-of-life biodegradability.
What do you think makes leather a great material to design with?
Leather products have a prolonged life span, eminently repairable and can be repurposed or readily composted at the end of the products life. It is versatile in the design world. Leather can be used in so many ways, giving a variety of textures unlike synthetic materials. Leather itself is an investment for those that truly understand its worth. With time leather ages like fine wine becoming vintage.
What has been your experience in working with leather for this competition?
Working with leather in this competition has definitely broadened my understanding and knowledge about the different ways leather can be used and how much it can benefit us. Others only know leather from its raw state and others from its finished products, being in this competition has allowed me to experience the entire value chain from farming through tanning to manufacturing and retail. It has awakened me to the reality of art as a tool applicable to day to day socio-economic dynamics of design life.
Click here to learn about the Africa Design Competition.
Click here to learn more about leather and sustainability.
Josslyn Shi from California College of Art has been crowned Overall Winner of the Real Leather. Stay Different. International Student Design Competition at a glittering final event held at the U.S. Embassy in London.
Taiwanese brand Oringo has been dedicated to producing affordable and stylish handmade leather men’s footwear for 15 years.
The main mission was for manufacturers and industry bodies to remind people that leather is a sustainable by-product and needs to be used to help heal the environment
Yu-Shan Chien is from Taipei, Taiwan and is currently studying Fashion Design at Shih Chien University. She chose to promote the idea of reusing waste leather and views it as rousing the leather and titled her project Trace Back to the Origin in mandarin to
Leather industry organisations from across the world have called on the COP26 Forum to recognise the role that leather and other natural fibres can play in tackling climate change.
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