What is an upcycled leather bag?
Nodie's, an eco-responsible French leather goods brand, uses upcycled French leather.
What does the term: UPCYCLER mean?
Upcycling is defined as overcycling or recycling from the top. More precisely, we take an object as is and revalue it, without causing any transformation that would require energy expenditure and harm our beautiful planet.
So you will understand what we mean by upcycled leather.
The term upcycling first appeared in 1990 in Germany . This was due to a growing awareness of waste that could ultimately be recycled, thereby extending its lifespan as much as possible and thus reducing its impact on the environment.
What is the difference between upcycling and recycling?
Recycling means transforming material to create new material, while upcycling means using existing materials to avoid destruction and waste!
These are therefore two very different words, but their primary purpose is to promote a reduction in environmental pollution.
Today, the climate and the impact of our industry on pollution have played a significant role in the evolution of our world and fashion has therefore followed suit, in order to begin to gradually rethink a profound change in its evolution.
Now a true ecological movement, upcycling is being adopted everywhere. Moreover, since recycling is not suitable for all materials, particularly leather, which is rather polluting due to its processing, except for vegetable-tanned leather, little by little, rather than spending astronomical sums to find a way to recycle, brands have begun to seriously consider reusing and reusing their waste.
Upcycling is therefore starting to take place in all areas: fashion, DIY, decoration, etc.
“ Rethinking the way we create, and manufacturing with existing materials”
Tine Collard, founder of Nodie's, became interested in upcycled leather in 2018 after meeting Virginie Ducatillon, founder of Adapta Paris. Adapta's goal is to connect with tanneries whose dormant leather stocks are destined for disposal.
Virginie Ducatillon explains her approach in this article from Leatherfashiondesign
Unlike discounters, she selects the most beautiful hides one by one herself so that she can then offer the most beautiful pieces of leather to leather goods makers.
It is also Adapta Paris which is a pioneer in leather upcycling, which has since become widely democratized and is starting to become a fashion phenomenon even before thinking about ecology... Because in fact upcycled leather sells, since at this point we are talking about a responsible approach.
Certainly this is the case for a majority of brands that use upcycled leather but beware of abuses starting to be seen and unfortunately it is good to use upcycling but if we have to consider having it manufactured on the other side of the world to make all this profitable, then how can we at this time talk about a responsible brand.....
This is how Tine decided to promote the use of this type of leather, which nevertheless has a disadvantage in this fast fashion world where overconsumption is encouraged: A limitation in the quantities of leather of the same color.
However, this disadvantage becomes an advantage for Tine, in fact she can offer limited edition models or the Andy Bag for example will be presented at the beginning in Camel with around ten copies in upcycled "Heritage" leather then later a powder pink leather which was a real success, a superb choice on the part of Virginie Ducatillon since our Andy Powder Rose went very quickly, and so on with multiple colors which mean that customers will not have the same bag with the same leather.
The latest addition presented at our last edition of the Made in France trade fair; Ruben Love, our soft leather tote bag, Origine France Garantie, featured a magnificent celadon green color, chosen by Virginie Ducatillon.
This color will also be a real trend in 2022 because this color is very popular.
After more than 200 bags produced and sold, there will already be many colors or grains, all different from each other, which makes Andy a unique bag for each customer.
Using upcycled leather, a climate challenge for Nodie's, a French leather goods brand
Unsurprisingly, the main interest in upcycling is the climate issue. Designing a product from a material that would otherwise have been discarded does not require creating additional material and therefore avoids drawing on our planet's resources, which are dwindling every year.
And to take this approach of avoiding waste even further, Tine uses all her leather waste to offer accessories.
So the Marius Card doors , the Lily Sam bracelets and belts were born from this idea.
Making the most of upcycled skin is an ambition dear to Nodie's .
Additionally, as you know, we also try to use upcycled leather from the red tanneries located less than 2km from our workshop to further limit our impact on the carbon footprint. So when we manage to combine the two, we are even more in line with our approach.
Upcycling is found in particular at La vie est Belt , which has, for example, reused used bicycle tires to make belts or old fabrics to make underwear.
It is steps like these that allow our brands to manufacture in France and promote a more eco-responsible world.
High-end and Upcycling
2 terms that are not normally associated because the image of high-end is contrary to the use of upcycled or materials from consumer or manufacturing waste. But yet in the world of luxury and especially since Covid 19, the awakening of consciences means that even luxury brands are starting to offer upcycled ranges.
“I want to reconcile these two values in a brand and promote the circular economy.”
Tine Collard
Nodie's offers high-end leather goods that use only upcycled leather. Furthermore, to continue this ongoing research into upcycling, Tine is currently working on an innovative material, which she presented at the Made in France trade fair last November at the Porte de Versailles in Paris.
Another alternative to upcycling is choosing salmon leather from food waste.
Beyond upcycling, Nodie's also uses Squama, marine leather as we explained in a previous article on this blog. Salmon skin from restaurants is processed and tanned to then become a noble material. Nodie's uses it in its accessories like our beautiful belts which combine upcycled calfskin and salmon leather.
And Virginie Ducatillon has also decided to follow suit and now offer upcycled salmon leather! Once again, a superb, common-sense approach to making this type of leather accessible, which is even more expensive and yet so beautiful to work with.
