Imagine a world the place all the things is made with care and provenance; the place each step, from insect-thriving pasture to fantastically crafted bag, nourishes the planet as an alternative of polluting it. A world the place making leather helps restore soil well being, helps native craftspeople, and builds communities of farmers and designers creating meals, fashion, and hope for a greater manner of residing.
This imaginative and prescient drives British Pasture Leather, the enterprise based by Alice Robinson and Sara Grady, that produces leather from regenerative farms. This October, they’ve partnered with a choose group of British makers and studios for MADE WITH a limited-edition assortment obtainable completely on-line.
Grady, a regenerative meals and farming advocate with over 20 years’ expertise, has lengthy labored to attach agriculture and ethics. After main sustainability programmes in New York’s Hudson Valley, she moved to the UK to champion traceability and ecological integrity within the leather business.
She explains: “We co-founded British Pasture Leather four years ago to create a supply of leather made from the hides of pasture-fed cattle in the UK. Sourcing from farms that follow regenerative principles, we’ve built a fully local supply chain now available to brands and designers producing accessories, interiors, and even shoes.”
Robinson is a designer and researcher exploring the intersection of farming, fashion, and design. Her early farm-to-fashion venture, comprised of a single cow on a near-by farm, demonstrated what a completely traceable, regionally rooted provide chain might seem like.
What Grady and Robinson are providing is a compelling various to traditional leather. The world leather business presently depends on manufacturing unit farming, poisonous tanning chemical substances, and untraceable provide chains which might be dangerous to each individuals and planet. Industrial tanning usually makes use of chromium and different hazardous substances that pollute waterways and expose employees to poisonous chemical substances. It’s about as distant from nature as you may presumably get.
Robinson elaborates: “As a designer, you don’t have the choice to work with a material that has a connection to agriculture or a specific part of the food system that you wish to support. After my own collection, I found there really wasn’t a way to work with a similar type of leather that offered that provenance that opportunity to connect to landscapes and farming communities.”
Grady provides: “If we are raising animals for food, we should use all parts of those animals meaningfully. We put so much care into raising them thoughtfully, prioritising welfare and ecosystems and when transformed into leather, it’s the part that endures. I realised we don’t look at leather as an agricultural product, but we should be able to make that distinction and bring the same values we bring to our food choices.”
Britain as soon as had lots of of tanneries supporting regional economies however at present solely a small handful stay. Decades of low cost abroad manufacturing has decimated the business. British Pasture Leather works with Thomas Ware & Sons Ltd in Bristol, one of three tanneries left that makes use of conventional vegetable tanning strategies.
“Our production is entirely in the UK” Robinson clarifies. “When we began, we really wanted to see if we could produce 100 per cent vegetable-tanned leather, a lower-intervention process that results in a strong, beautiful material that can biodegrade without toxicity.”
Grady provides: “Vegetable tanning uses tannins derived from plants, leaves, barks, and fruits, rather than synthetic chemicals.”
A group of British makers
The MADE WITH assortment spans luggage, equipment, interiors, and craft objects every made solely with British Pasture Leather. Highlights embody:
- Been London, the award-winning East London label identified for its zero-waste design, with the Annis Sling Bag and Calvert XL Tote.
- Francli Craftwear, a Cornwall-based studio bringing practical craft to life with key holders, telephone instances, and the Canvas Tool Bucket.
- Charles Laurie, masters of conventional leatherworking, producing baggage tags and wash luggage.
- OTZI, specialists in furnishings and joinery, with the Mesa Daybed and Camber Chair upholstered in British Pasture Leather.
- Risdon & Risdon, a Shropshire household workshop identified for its canvas and leather aprons, adapting signature designs for this assortment.
- Beorma, a Midlands equipment model producing the Herringbone Belt, Ryland Tote, and Stamford Holdall.
After a 15-year profession in bomb disposal within the Middle East, Alex Simpson returned to the UK along with his spouse in 2022 as they ready to welcome their first baby. Just a few months later, his deep-rooted ardour for working with leather led him to arrange a small workshop and Beorma was born. He began speaking to Grady and Robsinson a 12 months in the past. After a go to to the Beorma manufacturing unit in Walsall and discovering their shared values, the partnership naturally grew, with Beorma starting to make use of some of their leathers. When Grady and Robinson reached out concerning the MADE THIS collaboration, it was a simple determination. “We were honoured to get behind it,” he says.
“It’s beautiful leather both the material itself and the story behind it. We’re a British manufacturer and make everything in-house, so supporting UK production is important to us. The leathers we’ve used for the bags and belts are really beautiful, unique pieces.”
He provides: “There’s definitely a swing back toward supporting British manufacturing and understanding where and how things are made plus the regenerative side of it is huge. Customers care about the entire supply chain, and this one is truly special. We even ship a lot to Japan, where customers really value provenance.”
What excites him most, although, is the group: “There aren’t many companies left in the UK making leather goods. Walsall has been a saddlery hub for centuries, but much of that industry has been lost. We started Beorma to try and save jobs in one of the last remaining factories. What this project does is shine a light on the leather and on the makers across the UK creating beautiful things. It brings together people working in their own expertise to showcase this extraordinary material. I think that’s really special.”
Crafting with conscience
Ali Goodman, founder of Francli Craftwear, first found British Pasture Leather by a Groundswell panel discuss on regenerative farming. “I was watching Sara on the panel and she spoke so eloquently, she says. “It’s such a complex subject, yet they communicate it so well. I was already working with leather mostly Italian vegetable-tanned hides but I felt uncomfortable not knowing where it was from.”
On designing for the gathering, Goodman says: “When I got the leather samples, I chose designs that would let the leather do the talking keeping lines, seams, and stitching minimal. A lot of my work is material-led. I might start with an idea, but the shape depends on the material how it wants to fold, sit, and be interpreted. You get better, more timeless results that way. Their process resonates so much because it’s creating something that’s been offered from the soil, from process, by product, and then treating it with respect to where it’s come from. You naturally get a better product, their hides are a really special density and handle beautifully because the cows are healthier.”
Farmers to fashion
We don’t usually suppose of farmers on the subject of fashion, however they’re on the centre of the story. Ian Boyd, who has farmed for 55 years at Whittington Lodge Farm, embodies the regenerative rules behind British Pasture Leather.
He says: “On the journey to regenerative farming, I had to unlearn everything I’d learned through university and that’s quite a process.”
Boyd helps a return to regenerative farming: “British Pasture Leather is for people who care about animals, the environment, and the planet. It’s not about criticising conventional leather, but showing how it can be produced sustainably. Often, there are no alternatives to mass commodity production but here, there are.”
He explains how their story goes manner past meals; it’s about honouring the animal and surroundings: “We use as much as possible, selling beef direct to customers, the leather that Sara and Alice produce, offal, dripping, bone broth, everything. My goal has been to grow biodiversity and improve soil health. We can’t eat grass, so we need a beef herd to manage our habitats for biodiversity. We’re also net zero for carbon, so it’s about climate change too.”
Producing leather from pasture-fed cattle helps share their story and that of all pasture-fed farms. Boyd says: “We want people to understand that farming can be an essential part of the solution to the biodiversity and climate crises. Farming can be absolutely brilliant, but it doesn’t always get the credit it deserves.”
Building a greater system
British Pasture Leather’s work has been carefully supported by Pasture for Life, a group of farmers throughout the British Isles championing regenerative practices. Chief govt Jimmy Woodrow has labored with Robinson and Grady for the reason that starting, serving to to construct the inspiration for a extra clear, sustainable leather system.
“Pasture for Life is a community of farmers across the British Isles who are all working towards farming practices that benefit the environment, animals, and wider society,” he explains. “We focus on grazing animals eating a natural diet, only pasture, which contrasts sharply with much of the wider industry. We have a certification that verifies animals as 100 per cent pasture-fed. When I first met Sara and Alice, they were looking for partners to build this new leather supply chain in the UK. What attracted us was that our members were already interested, many were selling direct, experimenting in kitchen sink ways, and that interest was growing.”
Woodrow is proud to rejoice the rising group. He says: “Everyone rolled up their sleeves to start something new, something countercultural given what’s happening in the mainstream leather markets. Over the last five years, we’ve all become friends and are really invested in each other’s success. I’ve met a few of the brands producing with their leather and there’s a clear thread between the farmers, entrepreneurial and innovative, and the brands creating these amazing products. It all feels very harmonious.”
It’s non-comparable to what the excessive road can supply in the best way of sustainable fashion. Woodrow provides: “When we think about sustainability, there’s a big push in some quarters to remove animal products, but from our perspective, regeneration is literal these animals procreate naturally, without intervention. They create so many useful products; it’s an element of our consumer society we’ve lost. Everything else is virgin. There’s a lovely simplicity to these kinds of farming systems and the products they produce.”
A new sort of luxurious
MADE WITH marks the primary collaborative assortment of its sort, one which redefines what luxurious can imply when immersed in place, ecology, and goal. Each studio has reimagined its work utilizing the one leather within the UK made solely from pasture-fed cattle raised on licensed farms and tanned utilizing conventional vegetable strategies.
Grady says: “We’re readily available for any inquiries through the email address on our website or Instagram. It’s just the two of us, so if there are designers or makers interested in becoming acquainted with our leather, they can simply reach out, we’re always happy to connect. The ten studios we’re working with on this collection are ones we’ve come to know over the past few years, whose work we admire and who have been incredibly supportive.”
All orders in October are pre-orders, merchandise are made in November and delivered in December.