I Found the Secret Town Near Florence That Made "Italian Leather" Famous

Every stall in Florence's leather market says the same two words: Italian leather. I grew up in a family tannery in Turkey and spent thirty years in this industry, and I still couldn't tell you what those words actually guarantee, so I went to find out. What I found in the tourist market didn't match what the label promised. A few streets over, in two small workshops, it did, and every person I asked pointed to the same place: Santa Croce sull'Arno, a town most travel guides skip, where a consortium of eighteen tanneries still vegetable-tans leather the way it's been done here since the 1200s. This is the difference between the label and the thing the label was built on, and why most of what's sold under it today isn't that anymore. stay leathertained. --- SPECIAL THANKS I'd like to extend my gratitude to the friends who let us into their craft for this video. If you'd like to see their work or reach out with questions, they're all below: MPG Tannery (Giardi family) — my continued source of Italian veg-tan for my collection IG: https://www.instagram.com/mpgindustriaconciariasrl/ Web: https://mpg.it/ Il Busetto — the wet-formed veg-tan craftsman shop IG: https://www.instagram.com/giuseppefanara1989/ Web: https://www.giuseppefanara.com/it/ Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata al Vegetale — a great resource to learn about the craft and the partner tanneries IG: https://www.instagram.com/consorzioverapelle/ Web: https://www.pellealvegetale.it/ Il Bisonte — one of the b