Hirsch Kirsch
Hirsch & Kirsch make design-led, contemporary leather goods and lifestyle products, incorporating natural materials, traditional techniques and directional design.
The label focuses on a 'Modern Leather Craft' aesthetic through minimalist shapes paired with bold graphic details, surface patterns and contrasting colours, to produce visually striking pieces that only get better with age.
Modern Leather Craft Is Our Focus
Each product is designed, developed and hand-crafted in Somerset using the best Italian Vegetable-Tanned leather and British hardware.
The label grew out of my own need for products that were beautiful yet functional and not overly engineered. We love the idea and simplicity of a ‘Vessel’ but it needed to have a colourful and slightly playful element which is where the debossing comes in. Our inspiration comes from travel, art, design, architecture and textiles which heavily informs the shape, colour and surface print of the collections.
We love the honesty of vegetable leather
We first worked with leather as a BA Fashion student at Winchester School of Art over 15 years ago , falling in love with the tactility, variations and finishes but also how it could be manipulated and applied as a material. We love the honesty of Vegtan, the growth marks and scratches that celebrate the life of the animal, the nakedness of the surface that is ready to tell a new story, the way the edges will burnish naturally over time through use, it is phenomenally satisfying to work with and use.
The neutral colour we use acts as the perfect canvas for the foiled debossing designs that are then applied but coupled with the vegtan, it also highlights the shape, form and structure of each piece really well, lending them a certain sculptural quality.
We source my leather from Italy, from a tannery that belongs to the Consortium for Genuine Italian Vegetable-Tanned Leather. It guarantees a definitive level of quality whilst continuing to support ancient tanning techniques in the Tuscan region. My hardware comes from a family-fun foundry in Walsall who specialize in supplying the saddlery trade.
This transparency of my supply chain and the label as a whole is hugely important to us, knowing where my materials come from, utilizing my off-cuts and essentially avoiding a fast-fashion model.
What else we do
Alongside running the Hirsch & Kirsch label, We freelance for the Fashion and Accessories Industry, providing sampling and development services as well as hosting a variety of leather workshops and courses – https://www.hirschandkirsch.com/workshops-courses/ from my Somerset studio, teaching traditional leatherworking skills and techniques.