Fashion from chicken’s foot

Chicken feet leather (CFL) is the latest exotic material to hit the market.

Two Horns, a Chennai-based leather design company, is collaborating with the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in this area, and is gearing to become the first Indian company to bring out products made of this ‘delicate and lustrous’ material.

 “I have been following developments for a long time, waiting to see when chicken feet leather would come to India", says Jayavardhan Sampath, founder of Two Horns. “When I learnt that CLRI was developing the leather, I contacted them and showed them my designs.”

Only small changes will need to be made in the conventional methods followed in tanneries to process CFL. The changes mostly relate to liming and scale removal. Also, care has to be taken to retain the texture and grain pattern unique to this type of skin.

The aim is to make long-lasting organic products using an eco-friendly processing agent as the “skin is extremely thin, delicate and frayed at the edges",explains Jayavardhan."The leather is made from recycled poultry waste generated in India itself. The procedure of leather procurement remains the same for our other products”, he adds.

Jayavardhan and his wife Sujitha have designed airpod holders and coin pouches using CFL. They plan to begin production once CLRI completes its research on the raw material, possibly by April 2020. The items will be available online.

Jayavardhan, a graduate  in visual communication from the College of Fine Arts, Chennai, with a background in product design, started Two Horns with Sujitha three years ago to make leather goods like travel bags, accessories and lifestyle products from veg-tan leather, produced using tannins and other natural ingredients such as vegetable matter and tree bark.