Hasta La Ideas

Exploring the unique natural process behind Sukumo Leather

To push Ferrari‘s Tailor Made customization program to its limits—and bring our Ferrari Roma Tailor Made, Specially Crafted for COOL HUNTING to life—we commissioned components from several Japanese artisans that we visited during our 2019 CH Japan trip (and later collaborated with on our CH Omakase collection). Among the extraordinary custom additions, which include a signature Kamon (or personalized emblem) and Sakiori (textiles that have been upcyled from historic kimonos), the use of indigo-dyed leather is not only deeply meaningful to us at COOL HUNTING but incorporated into the Roma as a brilliant blue canopy visible only to those who enter it.

To achieve this enveloping surprise, Japan’s Sukumo Leather utilized their proprietary take on the Hon-Ai technique, which employs naturally fermented, plant-derived indigo as dye. This is a chemical-free process—and, as leather is more challenging to dye than silk or cotton, it requires many more steps to achieve the perfect hue. Two hides were dyed, one in a single shade of indigo and the other with a pattern hand painted using the traditional Roketsu technique. The leather was then sent to Italy to be cut into strips and woven—a poetic symbol of the international collaboration. Watch the video above to learn how the leather came to life with natural indigo and how it factors into our one-of-a-kind Roma.

Image by Irwin Wong