Portuguese tanners want more 'belief' from domestic shoe firms
Specialist leather artist and trends consultant João Carvalho has said Portugal’s thriving footwear industry needs to “believe” more in the country’s tanners.
Mr Carvalho, who trained as a tanner before branching off to make sculptures of the human body and other art pieces from leather, runs a gallery and workshop in a specially designed building he calls his Art Space just outside the tanning town of Alcanena. He is a member of the family that runs the Couro Azul and Carvalhos tanneries in Alcanena.
When COTANCE held a seminar in Alcanena at the end of October, João Carvalho invited delegates to attend a reception at the Art Space, with some of his sculptures and samples from his trends book for spring-summer 2017 on display.
With regard to footwear, he told the group: “We have a big footwear tradition in Portugal, but the Portuguese footwear industry is still importing 60% of the leather it uses. It’s like our own footwear industry doesn’t believe in us yet.”
