Design Trade
Edelman Leather l u x u r i o u s l e a t h e r
fashion forward styling By Emma Sommers
of crocodile leather into a happy, colorful style with their newest collection, Croco Loco. The company has brought back Andy Warhol’s drunken crocodile drawings as the collection’s mascot. Based in New Milford, Connecticut, Edelman Leather is a premier provider of luxury leathers and hair-on hides to interior designers and architects. In the mid-1950s Theodora (Teddy) and Arthur Edel-
E
man fell in love with each other and the family’s specialty reptile leather business. In the ‘60s, they took the fashion industry by storm with their leathers and the help of Andy Warhol, who did their graphic design at the time. They became one of the leading leather sources for the fashion industry, winning both the coveted Coty American Fashion Critics’ Award and the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award. The 1980s brought the company’s shift from fashion to interiors. Their foray into interior products brought even more accolades for the Edelmans, including the Robb Re- port’s Best of the Year Award in 2004 and Interior Design magazine’s 2009 Best of Year Merit Award for contract textiles. Edelman’s craft is leather — good leather pro- duced using hands, eyes and sensitivity to beautiful prod- uct. Their goal is to provide total freedom for designers in color, texture and style. Adding selected leathers powered by Crypton®
, which imparts stain-resistance, has given
designers even more freedom to specify leather in more situations. With corporate and representative showrooms in major cities across the globe, Edelman Leather has also given designers the freedom to specify their product no matter where their projects take them. The company prides itself on using the highest quality full grain hides from Europe — European cows are raised
22 delman Leather has transformed the classic look
without barbed wire or branding and are cleaned off at night to remove dung and urine that may stain the hides and make them unusable — finishing them naturally and with innovation. Their line consists of more than 750 colorways and 60 different types of leathers, all GREENGUARD In- door Air Quality Certified®
.
In addition to making leathers in a plethora of colors and patterns, the company also produces leather tiles for use on walls and floors, a collection of custom hair-on hide rugs and a series of tables and chairs that are covered or uphol- stered in leather or cowhide. The company shared some information with DTM on
how Edelman Leather got its start and about the processes they use.
What first drew Teddy and Arthur Edelman to the
leather industry? Arthur was an unhappy, unemployed actor, very young
and 6’6” tall. Parts were too hard to get. He was tempted by my father to come help in a tannery for the leathers be- ing sold to the shoe and handbag industry. Arthur broke loose by adding color to a black and brown leather busi- ness, bringing Teddy in to develop the colors for fashion.
What prompted the transition from the fashion in- dustry to upholstery? Fashion for us was the shoe business. It left the U.S. for Italy, Spain, Brazil — all the way to China. There were no
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