Precious Salmon Leather : 7 reasons to adopt this little revolution
Precious, ultra-confidential, sustainable, committed, made-in-France, showing exceptional properties : our precious salmon leather combines superlatives.
Why is this leather exceptional? Why are all the eco-fashionistas adopting it? Here is an overview of this precious leather that is revolutionizing the world of luxury leathers.
1. Committed precious leather
The salmon leather from our tannery is one of the precious leathers, as are crocodile, ostrich, ray (called shagreen) and snake leather.
The big difference between the latter leathers and the precious salmon leather lies in the fact that the salmon are caught or raised for their flesh, not for their skin, unlike crocodile and snake farms, 90% of ostrich farms , and to the patenaque ray fishery in Asia which is decimating these ray populations and threatening their existence.
Conversely, the skins used for the precious salmon leather come from local restaurants. Initially destined for destruction, these skins are recovered by the tannery, which transforms them into leather thanks to a long and meticulous tanning and coloring work. It is therefore a committed upcycling approach.
Our salmon leather is therefore both precious and committed.
2. An exclusive precious leather
The precious salmon leathers used by ANIMA come from a rigorous double selection, both by our tannery in order to guarantee the excellence of the quality of the precious salmon leathers, and by ANIMA in order to guarantee the excellence of the quality of ANIMA’s fine leather goods.
The leathers thus selected are in very limited quantities. This is the reason for the very exclusive nature of our precious salmon leather.
3. Eco-responsible precious leather
Our precious salmon leather is the result of a unique vegetable tanning process, making this leather the most sustainable alternative to conventional precious leathers.
Tanning is the process of transforming a skin into rot-proof leather. There are two main types of tanning : vegetable tanning and mineral tanning.
Vegetable tanning is the most virtuous tanning for the environment and our health. Indeed, entirely natural, it uses exclusively vegetable tannins, made up of plants and tree bark, unlike mineral tanning.
Mineral tanning or chrome tanning is one of the 10 most worrying and problematic sources of pollution in the World, because it uses heavy metals, such as aluminum and chromium salts. These metals are very harmful for the environment, but also for the health of leather workers and those who wear bags, shoes or jackets, using these leathers, which release chromium 6, a proven carcinogen.
Despite its very negative environmental footprint and its consequences on health, mineral tanning is used for the production of 85% of leathers in the World, because it is faster and less expensive than vegetable tanning.
Vegetable tanning requires more steps, more labor, and much more time. Vegetable tanned leathers are therefore more expensive, but they are part of a “slow fashion” approach where respect for the environment and our health take precedence.
4. A precious leather with exceptional qualities
The ecological virtues of vegetable tanning are not its only advantages. In fact, vegetable tanning guarantees excellent leather quality, far superior to mineral tanning.
In addition, the vegetable tanning process developed by our tannery is the result of 3 years of R&D, integrating the know-how of traditional vegetable tanning.
Added to this are the intrinsic qualities of salmon skin, skin whose resistance properties are adapted to the strong constraints of the aquatic environment.
The result is a leather with exceptional qualities: combining robustness and great flexibility, the precious salmon leather is thus one of the most resistant leathers in the World.
Finally, vegetable tanning gives our leather a woody smell.
5. 100% made-in-France precious leather
Made-in-France is one of the pillars of ANIMA. And our leather is no exception. It comes from a young French tannery, very committed to the environment.
In addition, the tannery collects salmon skins from local partners within a radius of twenty kilometers around the tannery. It is therefore a “short-circuit” approach.
The salmon leather used for ANIMA’s fine leather goods is therefore a precious leather 100% made-in-France.
6. Unique precious leather to connect with one’s own uniqueness
The precious salmon leather is remarkable for the very characteristic patterns of its counter-scales ; counter-scales in which the scales were placed. The shape and size of each of these counter-scales are unique. The patterns they draw are similar to a fingerprint, making each skin unique.
The transformation process – through vegetable tanning and colorization – does not alter this character of singularity; on the contrary, it reveals it and sublimates it.
Thus, thanks to these very unique skins that compose it, each piece of ANIMA fine leather goods carries within it this energy of singularity, uniqueness and self-affirmation, which is revealed and sublimated by the experiences of our lives.
7. A precious leather to reconnect with Nature and honor it
For me, who is a vegetarian, the choice of precious salmon leather was not obvious. It was after having studied in depth – my little engineer side 😉 – all the vegan alternatives to leather, that I realized that these vegan alternatives were all made of plastic and not very durable over time; they did not meet my eco-responsibility criteria that I had set for myself.
The precious salmon leather is not vegan, but it allows to value a salmon skin initially doomed to destruction. Knowing (a) that today there is no industry that systematically uses salmon skins, and (b) that any destruction or processing of waste generates pollution, precious salmon leather is eco-friendly leather, which mimics what Wild Nature does, where “waste” does not exist: the waste of some is a resource for others, just as oxygen is waste for trees and a vital resource for our human lives.
Transforming the skin of a salmon into precious leather is also, for me, a way of honoring, with gratitude, a salmon that gave its life for us, and whose skin, through its wild and unique character, connects us to Nature and transmits to us a powerful energy of singularity, self-affirmation and fluidity.
The precious salmon leather is a way of honoring a salmon, whose skin transmits to us a powerful energy of self-affirmation and fluidity.
Caroline Leo Palladio
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