Key leather trends, colors, and finishes for SS24 plus sneak preview of FW24

Reporting back from Brazil’s Inspiramais leather fair, the prognosis is that bygone eras are contemporary and seasons are irrelevant. The latter because Walter Rodrigues, Inspiramais Research and Design Coordination, prefers to replace the terms spring/summer and fall/winter with first semester and second semester, believing that seasonal definitions affix an unnecessary expiration date on materials and are an outdated concept, at least until products reach the retail stage. But we will use traditional terminology to describe three main themes for spring/summer as well as offering a sneak preview of fall/winter 2024.

Primal

Watch out for outlaws and gunslingers of the Wild West who will come galloping through next spring. Leather surfaces will be raw, beaten up and lived in, as if resurrected from some Hollywood archive representing the golden age of westerns. Hyper texture will be important, leathers that are primitive looking, aged, porous and with the natural grain and all its imperfections on display. A legacy of toxic masculinity bubbling over from neo-western TV drama Yellowstone along with the enduring influence of Jane Campion’s 2021 movie Power of the Dog will tussle with the sensual delicacy of Saint Laurent spring men’s show held in the Moroccan desert. The lingering impact of groundbreaking exhibit “Fashioning Masculinities” at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum will also be woven through the leather trends next year. A dusty sun faded palette softens the story’s edges.

Terra

A perfect companion story to Primal, this trend reflects our renewed sense of post-pandemic grounding and our symbiosis with nature and the five major types of biomes: aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra. Technology-infused materials will marry with, but not replace, the artisanal and ancient. Materials injected with air or padding will create new inflatable shapes in this austere but colorful story. A palette of Chamois, Lead and Summer Sand will be interspersed with Lavender and a tropical turquoise called Capri.

Corpo

Post-pandemic, we will continue to be body-conscious and the anatomy will take center stage in this third story for spring. Corsetry lines and quilting emphasize the human form beneath while innovations in the field of biometrics will inspire rubberized and glazed effects, and acetate or embroidery that resemble fur. Stand out colors will be Mandarin Orange and Equestrian Red, Old Gold, Fluorite Green and Vista Blue.

A glimpse of fall 2024

Check out Brazilian-born, London-based designer Joao Maraschin who will be the guest of honor at the next Inspiramais in July, as the forecasting team have deemed his work and approach the perfect encapsulation of fall 2024 trends.

Leather will go incognito. Remember those Bottega Veneta “denim” jeans from Fall 23? Trompe l’oeil will be even more evident in the latter half of 2024 when all will not be as it seems. Leather plaids with a wooly effect will make you look twice while native Amazonian fish skin such as tilapia and pirarucu will come to be viewed as new exotics.

Jade Green, Cayenne, Burnt Siena and Cabana Blue will be some of the key colors and will be found color blocked together in one of fall’s major themes, geometry. The land art sculpture by Michael Heizer entitled “City” which opened in Nevada last September after fifty years of development is the largest contemporary artwork ever built and its minimalistic drama will have global influence. Architecture will also inspire leather treatments reminiscent of ancient civilizations. Cut outs will prevail, and printed motifs with intersecting points, lines, angles. Think the Prada triangle 2.0.

A sense of poetry and appreciation of craft will be particularly dominant in the footwear market, to some extent a result of recently released documentary Shoemaker of Dreams, by Luca Guadagnino which celebrates the flair and Hollywood glamour of the house of Ferragamo.

Patisserie chef Cedric Grolet or pasta maker David Ravillo are leaders in the manual skill movement in the culinary field. Fashion, although slightly late to the party, is ready to represent and handcrafted materials or surface interest will be influential.

This story will present opportunities for interesting finishes, such as a ceramic aspect following the aesthetic of ceramicist Erskine Hall, achieved by crackling or trickling ink on leather. The appearance of exotic skins created by brushwork, and the Italian technique of intrecciato made famous by Bottega Veneto, as well as intricate braiding motifs will emerge.