Fine Leatherworking - a Dutch vanished craft

If you ever have the time and interest to dive into the archives of the Netherlands, focussing on craftsmanship in particular, you'll be surprised by what you'll find.

To me it felt like finding a pot of gold that invigorated my passion for fine leatherworking.

Below are some old pictures from Dutch archives.

Handbags at SLEM (Schoen, Leder & Mode ) exhibition http://www.salha.nl

It's so beautiful to see how skilled our Dutch craftsmen were many years ago.

Holland has a major history in leather craftsmanship. In a region called Noord-Brabant, there was a street that went straight through 12 villages in the southern of Holland, called Langstraat (which literally means 'long street' in Dutch). In over a hundred years this street had evolved into the centre of the leather goods industry.

The sewing room of the National School for tanning, shoemaking and leatherworking http://www.salha.nl

Leather tannery http://www.salha.nl

Optimization of the leather to conserve the quality http://www.salha.nl

Fabrication of leather goods. http://www.salha.nl

Royal visit of the queen at the time, Queen Juliana at the international leather exhibition in 1953. http://www.salha.nl

Unfortunately this major leatherindustry reduced to what’s left of it right now, almost nothing.

The production moved to mass producing factories in low cost countries.

We’ve lost so much knowlegde and so many skilled craftsmen. The quality of these mass produced collections is hard to compare to the quality back in the days when everything was still handmade, here… in Holland.

In an earlier story I described the dark side of the fashion industry these days, where money and power are the driving force of many business models, while people are suffering on the other side of the world so large companies can reach their sales targets.

The aim of our atelier is to bring high quality craftsmanship back to our country and do it right,

the healthy way, by designing and fabricating bags & accessories that are timeless and sustainable with a long term approach.

M a d e i n H o l l a n d

Love,

Safiera ♡