The perks of being a fashion student in Italy is that you get to learn first hand from the leading experts and most well know fashion houses of the industry. And what are the Italians certainly experts in? LEATHER, of course! One of the many hands on, out of the classroom experiences my program offered were visits to local leather factories and authentic leather workshops. One of these was a visit to Piero Tucci in Florence, Italy.

Here we learned about several parts of the leather product cycle, from understanding different levels of quality, hide selection, prepping, inking, embossing, and even the cut and sew process of assembling hand made products. While reading about these processes can be informative, authentic hands on learning from the experts is priceless.

There is nothing like seeing the process of raw material being transformed into a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Italians are all about quality, down to the last detail. And walking through the process in which quality is chosen and then elevated to art is a truly unique experience.

Stelavie