TFL’s Competence Centre Shoe/Leather Goods in Italy (Massimo Perlini and Francesco Pastore), together with the designer Emanuele Zamponi, have developed and presented a preview of the 2006 spring/summer range, which includes an array of trendy leathers, featuring several themes.
The focus is put on colour contrasts, cartoon and other illustrations related with the world of children, as well as on transparency and depth effects. Softness always prevails with leathers of an excellent feel and bright look. Technically speaking the emphasis is placed on wet retanning and finishing and on application and research to obtain an always better touch and fullness of the leather.
The main themes are described as follows:
Lawrence of Arabia: theme including the Primus, through-dyeing: A very pale through-dyed colour and a slightly darker surface colour create special effects to enhance the appearance of the raw material.
Zirconium: A technical item for the summer with white zirconium retanning for printed leathers, bringing out the depth of the print and the transparency of the finish.
Wet-White: The articles of the wet-white series are chromium-free and feature a very natural yet bright finish. The scoured range includes Type and Caddy, transparent kid and calf skins, the whole series of stone-washed faded items such as Carina, Morgan and Justy – very soft leather with a pleasant feel and drummed crystal baby-calf such as Murano and Silka.
The nabuk theme shows Batik as the main trend, a retanned article from very soft buffed leather with a sugary surface effect.