ECCO LEATHER: EL3 MOTION — THE NEW ORDER /

The use of leather in a performance and functional context has been a rare sight in recent years. Predominantly utilizing highly technical and innovative membranes and fabrics, most performance-based outerwear brands neglect the ancient fabric in their collections. Having worked within leather development and manufacturing for the last 20 years, ECCO leather knows of the material benefits leather possess and developed a concept collection titled EL3 Motion in collaboration with three outerwear designers: Kseniia Sofianatos, Rob Boyd and Jaimus Taylor. EL3 itself presents a dedicated platform for technological and creative innovation with a specific emphasis on the collaborative commitment between technologists, brands and creatives.

Laying and emphasis on placing the natural material in products and scenarios where it has rarely, if ever, been seen before, the EL3 Motion collection includes a range of outdoor-inspired garments and accessories. From breathable, embossed leather mesh, to ripstop leathers, to leathers fused to advanced technical materials, each super-thin, ultra-strong material is evidence of the way EL 3 challenges the traditions of leathercraft.

“The EL 3 Motion collection is an initiative illustrating how this extraordinary material can be transported into the 21st century, with all modern demands on sustainability and performance.” says Christine Mukakasa, ECCO Leather Head of Design Studio

The collection also represents a coming together of three of the brightest young creatives working in functional and sustainable design today. Jaimus Taylor is a multi-disciplinarian artist based in London whose Greater Goods practice focuses on upcycled clothing and has led to collaborations with the likes of Arc’teryx and Story MFG. Kseniia Sofianatos is perhaps better known by her Functional Clothing Lab moniker and the ultra-specific technical clothing challenges she sets herself. Sportswear enthusiast Rob Boyd is part of the design team at the high-performance running brand SOAR and boasts an impressive CV of brands and collaborators despite his young age.

Taken as a whole, the prototypes that make up the EL 3 Motion collection offer up possibilities of a bold, pioneering new future for leather, one that takes the material into places it has never been seen or used before. For a 9,000-year-old material that has remained largely unchanged despite a changing world around it, each piece represents a way of creating, wearing and using leather that is equal parts functional and forward-looking.

Technical T-Shirt and Utility Shorts by Rob Boyd