Moore & Giles Unveils an Array of Playfully Patterned Leathers

Printing on leather allowed the same subtlety in color and texture that I find on paper,” reflects artistAmber Khokhar. “It enabled me to paint as I normally paint.” She is one of five U.K.-based talents who have collaborated with the British leather specialistBill Ambergto create a new collection of vividly patterned, digitally printed hides forMoore & Giles.

Realized using natural pigments, her constellation of stars is joined by other geometric motifs: subtle, Bauhaus-inspired stripes by designerJonathan Saundersand groovy graphics by designerYinka Ilori. (The latter’s creation, originally conceived in Photoshop for a cover ofJason Reynolds’sbest-selling bookFor Every One,captures “what dreams look like as a pattern.”)

艺术家Kesewa Aboah, meanwhile, covered a friend in pigment and coconut oil, then pressed her body to paper, creating a dynamic, not-quite-figurative effect reminiscent ofYves Klein’sAnthropometry series. And furniture designerBethan Graypainted billowing boat sails. (“Because I used ultramarine ink, when it’s printed on the leather you really see that hand-painted look,” she notes.)

Amberg, whose atelier has long created bespoke elements for designers and architects likeAlexandra ChampalimaudandPeter Marino, began exploring digital printing only a few years ago but considers it the latest development in the material’s long, rich history. “Think of the illuminated wall panels in Florence or the hand-painted hides created by Native Americans,” he says. “Leather has been used as an artistic medium for millennia.”mooreandgiles.com