The Bottega Jeans
Leather is versatile, durable, and luxurious— it is not only the embodiment of the power of craft, but the material itself has the power to transform the mundane into the monumental. Animal skins have been treated and preserved from the time of Homer’s Iliad and the process of tanning leather has been traced back to Britain in the first century A.D. Leather outerwear has protected human bodies from warfare, battles with the elements, and exposure to wildly different climates during European colonization. The trajectory of trade, politics, and religion would not have been possible without leather for sails, shoes, or book-binding. It is not an understatement to say that the history of leather is also the history of humankind.
Such a ubiquitous material comes from an arduous, intricate process that has been refined and expanded over the course of centuries. First, hides are soaked in a lime solution, then manually stripped of their two outer layers to reveal the actual skin. The scoured and softened skin is then soaked in a tanning solution, usually made of chemicals, minerals, or vegetable material. Hides are gently paddled to speed up the tanning process, which is then repeated with new tanning solutions. After many stages of tanning, the hides are slowly dried and sold to different craftsmen to be turned into myriad products: belts, bags, boots, book covers, and more.
Leather is the direct embodiment of the human power to transform the banal into the elite. Leather not only comes from a waste product, leftover skins from butchering meat, but uses waste products in the tanning process; Actual waste, i.e. animal feces and urine, as well as oak bark are used in traditional methods of tanning. Leather goods, which are the direct products of waste, have contributed to the largest movements in history and today are amongst the most coveted in luxury fashion; owning a specific type of leather good can signal wealth, prestige, and taste.
Leather not only embodies the transformative power of craft, but can accomplish that transformation itself. The opening look of Italian leather goods brand Bottega Veneta’s Fall 2022 show featured a simple white tank top tucked into loose blue jeans, worn with a woven brown leather shoulder bag and woven black leather heels. However, these blue jeans are not made of traditional cotton denim, but leather. One of the most mundane and ubiquitous pieces of clothing in the modern Western fashion canon are blue denim jeans, but here they are elevated to the pinnacle of modern luxury because of a change in material.
By applying leather craftsmanship to an ordinary pair of blue jeans, Bottega Veneta was able to elevate an ordinary-looking item into an exclusive luxury good; a pair of jeans currently retail on the brand’s website for $6,800. Leather is the product of the transformative capabilities of craftsmanship, but the material itself has a transformative quality that can elevate the most mundane article of clothing into a luxury item. Leather is power embodied, which explains why it always is worn so close to the human body. By covering the body with leather, humans can become one step closer to God, or at least to the God-like capability to elevate, transform, and create. Perhaps this is why leather was such an indispensable tool in both the domination of people and the natural world, and is now such plays a key role in sartorial world-building and the modern-day armor of the financial elite.
Langlands, “The Shoe and the Harness,” Craeft. pp.196-201.
Phelps, Nicole. Bottega Veneta Fall 2022 Ready-to-Wear Review. Vogue. February 26, 2022. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2022-ready-to-wear/bottega-veneta#review
“Printed Leather Denim.” Bottega Veneta Women's Printed Leather Denim in Medium Blue Denim. https://www.bottegaveneta.com/en-us/printed-leather-denim-medium-blue-denim-713843V2BC04600.html.