Credit: Lemaire
What is the boundary between art and fashion? Does this border really exist? This is one of the questions Lemaire attempts to answer with his collaboration with artist Carlos Peñafiel, with whom he has been working for 10 years now, which focuses on the ancient technique of hand-pressing leather.
It starts with the creation of a resin mould designed and then made by the artist himself, from which a metal mould is then produced on which the hides, rigorously vegetable-tanned, will be modelled. Then comes the processing: the craftsman manually presses the moistened leather onto the mould, shaping it by following the curves of the metal, which maintains the imperfections of the resin form created by the artist.
The process is very long and requires patience and savoir faire, as the leather will also retain the memory of the hands of the person moulding it. The skins are then dried in the sun and finally assembled, closed with a magnetic metal accessory and finished with wax to give them a shine.
This ancient process gives rise to bags such as the Carlos Bag, a clutch in the shape of a shell, and the Egg Bag, true Wearable Sculptures, like the title of the exhibition held in the Paris boutique Lemaire where these and other creations made for the occasion by Carlos Peñafiel can be admired until 23 March.
