I've often wondered if leathercraft as a whole has improved or regressed.
There are probably a lot of thoughts on this and you are welcome to give your opinions below. But time and time again I see beautiful examples of fine leather goods made in the early 1900's that blow my mind. Not just the leather and craftsmanship, but the detail in the hardware too.
As a maker I love analysing some of these pieces and breaking down the steps in my mind if I had to recreate it. What I find with many luxury trunks, cases, top frame bags and jewellery boxes is an incredible amount of thought and design that I rarely see in 2020.
This may be a change in consumer tastes, lifestyle and labour costs, but one can't ignore some of the exquisite mastery displayed by many artisanal brands that are mostly long gone.
Some examples I found today:
And probably my favourite by Hermes:
Those are some pretty amazing items.... I can't help but hope that we will see this level of craftmanship return on a larger scale.
That Hermes one is pretty nuts, it seems they thought of every single little thing and there is just nothing to improve.
It's almost like a Leathercraft version of the Studley tool chest. If you've heard of the Studley chest then you know how mind-blowing it is.