I grew up surrounded by leather. Leather was used in my house to solve it all: from pressing a door, mending a shoe, the dog's collar, hanging a hammock, binding a book, as a support for a lame table leg, as insulator around the kitchen. In fact, everything was a piece of leather. I never perceived leather as an expensive piece, neither a luxury, there was plenty in the workshop of my grandfather, an artisan of leather and books.
The smell of leather for me is not the same smell that people perceive. The aroma of "my leather" is not the same used in a BMW seat, is not the same as that of a leather jacket, and is not some new shoes. The leather I smell, is that from the workshop when punching and hammering a piece, my aroma of leather also smells like cement, it smells a little like dust, it smells like grandpa.
Since my childhood, I knew that the leather is measured in feet rather than inches, that it is better to say "skin" than "leather", that the smoother the skin, the healthier the cow was, that cement is smeared but does not smell; and that if you rub brow on it, it gets brighter. I have also heard that leather will not deceive, vinyl will not pass as leather, and the reverse of the skin is the secret of whether it is leather or not. Leather is not just black or brown; it comes in many colors.
It has been my daily routine to feel the leather, and its exquisite texture became a starting point in every design. I choose the leather based on its "creases", which define the use for the skin. And there are so many uses, that I could think of hundreds of products from the textures of leather.
I want to bring to your lives the meaning of leather in the same sense that came to mine, in a practical, useful, wholesome, unpretentious, plain, natural and instinctive. I want the world to appreciate the leather as it is, with its flaws and its natural beauty, with its real flavor, texture and creases.
Sofia Protti
