There is a street in Athens where the morning smells of coffee, cut stone and something older — a warm, animal, slightly sweet smell that takes a moment to place. It is leather. It comes from a door that is usually half open, and behind that door is a workshop where FELUS has been spending its summer.
Why we went
FELUS was built on raffia: palm fibre, hand-twisted and handwoven in Madagascar. It is a material of lightness and sun. But every house of craft eventually meets a second material, and for us the question was never whether, only when, and with whom.
The answer to "with whom" turned out to be in Athens. It felt right that the second chapter should begin where the first one ends.
What we are not telling you yet
We are not going to show you the pieces. We are not going to tell you their names, their shapes or their number. What we can tell you is that they are made by hand, in a city that has been working leather for longer than it has been called Athens.
Over the next few weeks, we will write to you from that workshop. Consider this the first letter.
This autumn, FELUS will introduce leather. Until then, the door stays half open.