It is perhaps the most famous individual kind of leather, the hides of Russian reindeer skin that divers found on the ship Metta Catharina which sank in 1786. For a number of decades since one picked up the first barrels with leather shoes and leather accessories have been made in the material, but now soon all hides will have been used. This plus info on a new Tumblr version of Shoegazing.
The hides are reindeer skin which all these years laid in their barrels on the seabed. It has got its own special character after they’ve been bent back and forth, and this is the leather which is the model of hatch grain, russian calf whatever their call it, which has similar structure embossed into the hides. The reindeer skin’s smell is very special, and although they remained in surprisingly good condition, it’s a quite bad material especially for shoes, since it’s sensitive and quite easily cracks. Even though it’s nowadays often the worst hides that are left the price is extremely high today, simply because the supply is now about to completely ran out. It’s the story and the special about having material that are several hundred years old that is the value. This skin on the image aboce is the last full skin that the Italian brand Stefano Bemer have left, there are a few others, including Cleverley in England who bought the largest amount of the leather, which retains some, but reportedly all are now low on stock, and everything from the ship is already picked up.
After a number of people have been nagging me about it, I have now started a Tumblr version of Shoegazing. There all the pictures from my Instagram account will be posted, as well as info when new posts have been made here on the blog, a good way for those who are Tumblr users to follow what is happening in the Shoegazing world. A reminder also of the newsletter that comes out every other week, where all the posts from the previous weeks are gathered and an updated calendar of shoe events around the world is included, and more. Sign up in the sidebar below the ads.
My new Tumblr blog.
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