Beyond Leather is a collaborative lighting project developed by Elmo Leather, Madrid-based creative studio TetuánCrea, and Soulem. Presented as part of the Viveros project during Madrid Design Festival 2026, the collection explores new uses for leather offcuts through a series of handcrafted luminaires.
Designers Estrella Poza Ruiz and Ilaria Franceschini developed the pieces through composition studies, prototypes, and material experiments. The project was also created in partnership with Soulem, an organization that supports women in vulnerable situations through training, craftsmanship, and community programs.
Leather commonly used in upholstery, automotive interiors, and accessories forms the basis of the lamps. Light passes through layered sections of material, highlighting variations in color, texture, and grain across each piece. Cuts, overlaps, and tensioned surfaces shape the geometric forms, giving every lamp a distinct appearance.
Image Credit: Elmo Leather
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Upcycled Material Lighting
- Discarded leather remnants gain new value as luminous design objects, signaling potential for premium home goods built around waste-stream transformation.
- Craft-led Circular Design
- Handmade production methods combined with industrial offcuts create differentiated objects where sustainability, texture, and provenance become core product attributes.
- Social Impact Manufacturing
- Partnerships with community training organizations connect ethical labor models to design production, broadening the appeal of products with visible social value.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Interior Lighting
- Layered leather surfaces introduce warmth, translucency, and material variation to luminaires, expanding the category beyond conventional glass, metal, and fabric forms.
- Leather Goods
- Offcuts from upholstery, automotive interiors, and accessories represent an underused resource for adjacent product lines that preserve luxury material associations.
- Sustainable Design
- Circular material experimentation supports collectible objects that merge environmental responsibility with high-end aesthetics, reshaping expectations for eco-conscious interiors.
