LHCA takes Real Leather, Stay Different to the Philippines
The Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) and the Fashion Accessory Makers of the Philippines (FAMPh) have partnered to open up the Real Leather, Stay Different student leather design competition to students in the Philippines in 2023.
This new partnership will aim “to reshape education around the production and use of sustainable leather in the Philippines”, the partners said.
Students in art and design schools across the Philippines will be able to take part. They will be challenged to design a single apparel, accessory or footwear item using natural materials, 50% or more of which must be leather.
Shortlisted finalists will be invited to create their design concept with the assistance of FAMPh and local sponsors. The design of the overall winner for the Philippines will be professionally made to form part of a capsule collection showcasing the best international talent and unveiled at an event hosted in Europe in October 2023, organised by LHCA.
At the time of the announcement, the president at the Fashion Accessory Makers of the Philippines, Gina Nebrida Ty, said: “We look forward to seeing a new generation of Filipino creatives through their design entries, which will showcase and highlight excellent craftsmanship and ingenuity, through the marriage of Philippine leather and beautifully handcrafted local, indigenous fabrics and materials.”
She said she hoped the initiative would also help “modernise and strengthen” the domestic leather industry in the Philippines through shared best practice and learning from LHCA.
For his part, the Washington DC-based organisation’s president, Stephen Sothmann, said: “The competition’s mission is to spark the interest of Philippine designers to work with responsibly produced real leather which puts hides that would otherwise go to waste, to good use. Real leather doesn’t just look good, it is better for the environment than manmade alternatives and makes products so durable that each can last a lifetime. It is quintessentially ‘slow fashion’.”
