STUDIO : MATERIALS

Here at Francli we are always looking to find the most sustainable design routes and because of this, up-cycling has become an important part of our making. 

Pre or post consumer waste, we want to give it a longer lifespan through our products. Whether it’s rummaging through festival waste or being approached with a manufacturing waste problem, we are always coming across really interesting materials that create unexpected design opportunities.

When designing the Butchery apron for 7th rise, we had to consider the functional qualities of each of our chosen materials. They had to be hard-wearing, protective and comfortable. The knives are incredibly sharp so there had to be an abrasive proof element to the materials. It also had to be waterproof and wipeable without allowing any blood to soak into the fabric.

For the main body of the apron we used leather waste off-cuts from a classic car upholsters. This is given to us in a range of size, shape and colour and arrives at the studio stuffed into a big jute sack. They are not big enough for the patterns of their interiors but they still have potential for other uses. Leather has long been used in traditional craft because of it’s strength and flexibility, we love it’s timelessness – how it slowly moulds to the shapes and movement of it’s application and collects marks of age like proud badges. 

The front panel is made from hypalon as this is the most vulnerable area. Hypalon is a fabric used to construct boating inflatables; it is UV resistant, waterproof, air tight and all-together pretty indestructible. 

Through a chance meeting followed by an interesting conversation, we discovered this unique material that is shipped off in the skip load to land-fill every fortnight. We frequently make the journey to the factory and collect the off-cuts to save it going to landfill. We choose to use it in most of our products because it’s durable and protective characteristics are exactly what we look for when we’re designing for rough environments.