Game Left Over

With the partnership between the École Boulle and Maison Loewe, the game is far from over for leather offcuts.

The École Boulle and Loewe share a commitment to excellence, the preservation of craftsmanship and the promotion of fine materials. In 2023, the two institutions formed a partnership. Every year, the school’s workshops receive leather scraps from Loewe’s factory in Spain, left over from the production of leather goods. These pieces are already tanned and refined, of rare quality, but unused. While the reuse of materials from the luxury sector has become commonplace in design and art schools, the Game Left Over educational project stands out in many ways.

Historically renowned for its excellence in wood, metal and soft materials — such as upholstery — the École Boulle had not previously taught leatherworking. This exchange with Loewe has opened up a new field of experimentation, particularly for students in the Design & Object department, whose challenge is to reconsider the link between production and its implementation process. The approach is therefore comprehensive. It goes beyond the simple craft dimension and leads students to understand the material differently, in a conscious and contemporary way.

In this project, leather is explored through a visual and narrative lens, following the example of Loewe, for whom image plays a central role in the creative process. In collaboration with fifth-year students, who took on the role of artistic directors, second-year students rethought leather scraps not as the basis for an object, but as the starting point for a narrative, leading to a collection. The catalogue, designed entirely by the students, is the result of this process. The layout, drawings, art direction and photographs reveal the creative approach and expressive power of the material.

Loewe is a benchmark in leather goods, so the students sought to break free from this and venture into unexpected worlds. And they rose to the challenge. Leather first becomes a sensitive surface with a carpet of minimalist assemblages. The custom-cut fragments reveal their nuances, grains and contrasts in a composition that is both understated and sensory. It then becomes a gardening tool in the Glean Tools project: a series of accessories inspired by Japanese craftsmanship, where leather is used to cover harvesting tools. It is poetic and utilitarian leather goods that ennoble everyday life.

With Bobby The Bear, leather takes on a naive form: a bear born from a student’s illustration echoes the world of charms and Loewe’s collaborations with the Japanese studio Suna Fujita. Between the rigour of the material and the lightness of the subject, the project evokes playfulness and emotion. In Nilas, the material slips into the culinary world. Inspired by kakigori, a Japanese dessert made from crushed ice, the project transposes the colourful layers of the dessert into a food container made of layered leather. A sensory experience prolonged by the photographs in the catalogue. The leather melts like ice cream, blurring the boundaries between material and image. Finally, Binaka brings leather into the realm of sport with a reference to Basque pelota. The accessories, woven like the famous glove of the great chistera, combine craftsmanship and regional culture. Graphic and linear, the project revisits the world of sport through a visual language steeped in tradition. •

Game Left Over, Loewe with the École Boulle classes © Juliette Guyot-Chaillou
Game Left Over, Loewe with the École Boulle classes © Sophie Fréchet
Game Left Over, Loewe with the École Boulle classes © Vincent Destouches