Ms Bingbing Bai

Research project: The Practice of Vegetable-Tanned Leather towards Luxury Fashion and Accessories Industry 

Abstract

My research will be based on practice, driven by a series of explorations and experiments, with the aim of broadening and deepening the interactions and connections between craftsmanship, vegetable tanned leather, and the luxury industry. I plan to use a craft-led approach to conduct process exploration and physical experiments on leather obtained from The Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium and record its process to find and summarize the possible applications of this material in different capabilities. Experiments will be further transformed into emerging results, physically presented in expressions such as artifacts, accessories, and other fashion categories, to demonstrate the special role of vegetable tanned leather as a material resource and research tool. This research into vegetable-tanned leather materials could help expand the way it can be used in the luxury fashion and accessories industry. 

This is a qualitative and process led study that utilizes grounded theory for the analysis of semi-structured interviews, which is more conducive for me to examine the known process uses in detail, flexibly summarize, and organize their experiences. In addition, I will undertake field research directly with The Genuine Italian Vegetable Tanned Leather Consortium and will establish goals based on the findings of the case study and continue to negotiate with relevant sectors that can be contacted, and take measures to the interviews will be recorded in the form of semi-structured interviews via video meeting, telephone conferencing or email, and will be transcribed and written down. This will also serve as an important source of data for grounded theory, classifying the similarities and differences between its concepts, which requires continuous acquisition of new data and the combination of practice for gradual verification and adjustment, and contribute new knowledge to the role of vegetable tanned leather in the luxury fashion and accessories industry.