Since 1842
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Tannerie HAAS
A family saga… Know-how… Leather
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Contents Hide and seek
Page 8
From hide to leather
Page 24
Beamhouse
Page 30
Tanning Workshop
Page 38
Retanning-Dyeing Workshop
Page 48
Currying Workshop
Page 54
Finishing Workshop
Page 64
Control-Shipping Workshop
Page 72
Art and material
Page 80
In the wings
Page 96
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The heritage of a tradition Since 1842, six generations have successively run Tanneries Haas. A family saga, is has crossed the decades making the most beautiful calf leather in its workshops. The heir to prestigious craftsmanship, the company perpetuates the taste for beautiful goods. Luxury, leather and voluptuousness... 8
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« The greatness of a craft is firstly in how it brings comradeship to men ; there is no hope or joy except in human relations.» (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
Hide and seek
The history of leather goes back to the dawn of humanity. From garment to habitat, our ancestors used the hides of the animals they hunted to protect their bodies and cover their shelters as the discovery of tools (knives, scrapers) dating back to 10,000 years before our era shows. Saving your skin is one thing. The art of immortalizing a foul-smelling material carrying the death taboo in a civilized material is another, and just as difficult. It was the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites and Carthaginians who developed this know-how. To equip their armies with armour, cover the hulls of boats, write on parchment, conserve grain, f lour and transport wine, water, oil...
Tan and time The first tanning recipe to come down to us appeared moreover on a tablet from the Sargon period (ca. 700-705 BC): “You will take the a cowhide and you will soak it in water
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containing flour, pure nisaba, beer and wine. You will next immerse it in pure bull fat to which is added aromas extracted from the pith of plants, you will treat it with wheat flour, bitqa flour, kurru flour, then you will put it in oak gall and in stone from the land of the Hittites.” This process has constantly evolved over time but the principle has always remained the same: the hide must first be purified of the elements that soil it, then treated with fat to give in “body”. Next, tannins are added that after absorption and drying, will breathe new life into it, even giving it a certain kind of immortality. According to the tanners of Marrakesh, through this ordeal the hide undergoes, it then recovers the animal’s life force. It is the alchemy of transformation, a dark and mysterious power that throughout the ages has given the tannery the image of a secret place. Time plays an essential role in leather production. If it only takes a week to produce goat and sheep hides, to tan large
The tanner’s tools Plate of sketches done by the naturalist painter Bernard Direxit, taken from the Diderot & d’Alembert encyclopaedia, Art du Cuir, Bibliothèque de l’Image. Preceding pages : Alfred Haas and two employees. Tanning workshop in the 1930s
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5,000 Francs for the factory Alo誰se Haas transformed a spinning mill into a slipper manufacture to which he added a tannery for making leather on 3 April 1843.
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At the end of the 19th century, the leather and hide sector was France’s second largest industry
hides “to the core”, several months are needed, hence the tanners’ motto: “to obtain good leathers, you must have tan and time.”
Alsace, land of the tanners Tannery, tanner, tanning: the origin of these words is the Gallic tan (or tann) which means oak, the king of trees, a sacred emblem, a symbol of power and durability. It brownish red bark peels off like skin. Reduced to powder, it is transformed into an exceptional tanning agent. Alsace has large forests of oaks and trees that provide tan like the chestnut, as well as an abundance of flocks and highquality flowing water, optimal conditions for leather work and for the hide trade to prosper. As of the early 17th century, a genuine industr y developed in all the region’s cities. The many houses, districts and streets of tanners that still exist in Colmar, Mulhouse, Erstein, Pfaf fenhofen, Haguenau, Selestat, Wasselone and Kaysersberg bear witness to this activity today. At the time, leather was present in every aspect of life: shoes, saddlery, furniture, tools, accessories, bindings, clothing, industry… Each hide is unique, each one has a specif ic use.
Lambskin, renowned for its f ineness, is the best adapted to making clothing. Cowhide, which is thicker, lends itself more to producing soles, straps, harnesses, luggage. Goat or sheep leather is reserved for small objects... At the end of the 19th century, tanning was the second largest industry in France. The Napoleonic wars heavily contributed to its expansion. A land of tanners, Alsace was particularly solicited to produce the leather indispensable to the army at the time. At this period, there were over 300 tanneries in the region. Located 35 km from Strasbourg, the commune of Barr became one of the major production centres, famous for its leathers far beyond its borders. Thirty family firms in Barr made products that were exported as far as America. It is a secret world, we might say, a world governed by the spirit of the trade guild officially founded in 1264 and a craft that is handed down in and by the family, because it is a question above all of keeping the secrets of creating the beautiful leathers that are produced. The formulas and preparations, the fruit of know-how and experience acquired by physical effort, are part of a jealously guarded capital.
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A line of tanners Cultivating the spirit of a firm on a human scale, favouring simplicity, but also a sense of responsibility and respect for quality are values that have been transmitted from generation to generation, permitting the Haas family to perpetuate and enrich a unique expertise.
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Aloïse Haas (1800-1868)
Émile Haas (1840-1904)
Alfred Haas (1877-1950)
Jacques Alfred Haas (1909-1989)
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Arriving in Barr in 1827, Aloïse Haas (18001868) was born in Schramberg, in BadeWurtemberg (Germany). A widower, he married his second wife Sophie Mummel, who came from an old well-to-do Barr family, and three years later, in 1842, bought a knitting firm that he transformed into a slipper manufacture. He quickly added a small tannery to it to make soles.
The Belle Époque Postcard dated 1924. The factory had 150 employees at the time. Opposite: detail of he façade of the offices built by Émile Haas in 1891.
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Although he was new to the trade, Aloïse Haas, had the soul of an entrepreneur and had the stuff to invent and create. He notably built a by-channel on the Andlau river that still supplies the tannery today through a waterfall. It was a visionary act, because water is to the tanner what fire is to the blacksmith or potter: an indispensable raw material, all the tanning operations requiring a regular water supply. In 1868, Émile A. Haas (1840-1904) took over for
his father. He abandoned the production of slippers and just kept the tannery. The Industrial Revolution was underway and trade to America was rapidly expanding. The German invasion in 1870 and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, however, brought about an upheaval that forced the firm to find new outlets in Eastern Europe. Émile A. Haas replaced sole leathers by “upper leathers”, the famous “white calves” produced with tannins based on oak and chestnut bark. This article, a regional speciality, contributed to the f irm’s growth. He built a mill downstream of the tannery, which he turned over to his son Émile. However, after some dissension, his son left the family firm to set up shop in Val de Villé, then in the Oise. Émile A. then turned to his second son Alfred (1877-1950), who had the soul of a poet and artist, whom he sent to learn the tanning trade in England.
In 1900, the firm underwent a genuine revolution with the arrival of a new, rapid and modern tanning method. The use of chromium instead of plant tannins shortened the treatment time for hides from several months… to just a few days! This new process forced the tannery to totally transform itself. It had to adapt or disappear. With the arrival of the industrial era, Alfred Haas invested to considerably improve the productivity of work that was until that point manual, time-consuming and difficult.
A specialist in “spinning calf” He then developed the “Box-Calf”, a calf leather tanned with chromium that was enormously successful. The firm also acquired a solid reputation through leather intended for so-called “fatigue” shoes for the mountains or hunting, and military boots. After World War I, an original article was added, the “spinning calf”, an extremely technical leather for sheathing the sleeves of spinning machines to replace
the fingers of the spinners of yesteryear. This item required rigour and precision and was one of the firm’s specialities until the late 1970s. With the massive arrival of synthetic materials, leather gradually lost its dominant place. Nonetheless, Tanneries Haas continued its growth by refocusing on their main activity: shoes, which have remained faithful to leather. Alfred Haas’s eldest son, Jacques Alfred (1909-1989) joined the company in 1932 after having completed his studies at the École Française de Tannerie in Lyon and taking part in training programs, notably in Nantes. His enthusiasm was dampened by World War II. The return of German troops to Alsace forced the management to withdraw beyond the blue line of the Vosges, to Épinal. The mobilization of the staff, the fire at the factory on 11 April 1942 and Jacques A. Haas’ internment as a political prisoner in the Schirmeck camp for his pro-French stance slowed down production.
Drums View of the tanning workshop in the 1930s.
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Continuity Roland Muller and his son Jean- Christophe as well as a view of the beamhouse at the start of the 1990s. Opposite: Novocalf ® label, a speciality of the firm whose qualities were honoured by a gold medal at the 1958 Universal Exposition in Brussels.
In 1945, the return of peace did not signal the end of the f irm’s problems. The facilities had to be rebuilt and new markets, customers and products found. In the 1950s, Jacques A. Haas invented a unique supple leather, thick and soft to the touch: Novocalf®. The product was a tremendous success and was awarded the gold medal at the 1958 Universal Exposition in Brussels. Under his direction, the factory developed and became known throughout Europe, and especially in the Netherlands and Italy. At the time, Tanneries Haas had 140 employees. On September 11, 1966, a fire broke out. Late at night, the flames engulfed the first floor and all the stock. In the early hours of the morning, the verdict was definitive: the buildings were heavily damaged. Part of the firm’s activity was shifted to the annex of the tannery in Barr, affecting production so negatively that the firm filed for bankruptcy in February 1970.
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“If you don’t try, you’ll never know.” This bit of advice rang out like a summons. When Roland Muller, a brewer by training and Jacques A. Haas’ son-in-law, took over the activity in the form of a new company in association with a hide supplier in the Aveyron, the tannery was in a desperate situation. “The first two years, we didn’t have a roof, or windows…”, Roland Muller recalls. So he went from brewer to tanner. “No one thought we had much of a future”, he points out. “But we were extremely lucky. The prices of calf hides had remained stable and at a very low price for 18 months. In the tanners’ memory, no one had ever seen that. That was what enabled us to restart production.”
Leather, an object of seduction He crisscrossed the country looking for new customers. After shoe manufacturers, he canvassed garment makers. At the time, the style was seamless leather trousers and jackets. A standard of the world of rock or associated with the great outdoors,
“Double tanning” Another of the firm’s indispensable references: Barenia ®, a supple and soft full-grain leather that also benefits from double tanning.
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a symbol of luxur y or rediscovered authenticity, leather became an object of seduction. Nubuck in particular displayed itself in every colour and in large volumes. Tanneries Haas was honoured by appearing on the front page of Jours de France with a jacket made by Jacques Laurent for the Corval brand. Tanneries Haas also supplied at this period the leather for the lecterns of the National Assembly and started diversifying towards leather goods and saddlery. “We were too small to supply large quantities for shoes. From then on we shifted towards the upmarket leather goods sector,” he explains. “We didn’t have a choice. The tannery must constantly adapt. This saga, which has lasted for six generations, could have ended and this know-how could have disappeared on many occasions.” In 1972, the company was able to buy the buildings and assets that it leased from a property management f irm, and the following year to rebuild them. It was the beginning of the fashion for accessories and therefore a great opportunity. Leather goods acquired their imprimatur and came in every size and style. In the mid1970s, Roland Muller formed a privileged relationship with leather goods makers such as Longchamp. He developed a silkscreening technique on leather that was a great success. A line was reissued in 2008 for the brand’s 60th anniversary.
Chronology 1842 The founder Aloïse Haas acquires a spinning mill, transforms it into a tannery and builds a by-channel on the Andlau river. 1868 His son Émile A. Haas takes over the tannery and develops new leathers including the “white calves”. 1870 Annexation by Germany of Alsace-Lorraine 1900 Returning from England, Alfred Haas, Émile’s second son, starts production of “Box-Calf”, a calf leather tanned with chromium. 1930s After World War I, the tannery started production of «spinning calf», a leather techinique designed to sheath the sleeves of spinning machines. 1932 Alfred’s oldest son, Jacques-Alfred Haas, joins the firm. 1940 New annexation by Germany of Alsace-Lorraine. 1942 Fire in the factory, withdrawal to Épinal and internment in Schirmeck of Jacques-Alfred Haas. 1955 Invention of Novocalf ® awarded the gold medal at the 1958 Universal Exposition in Brussels and development of shoe leathers.
The reference in beautiful articles
1963 Arrival of Roland Muller, Jacques-Alfred Haas’ sonin-law.
His daughter Emmanuelle joined the firm in 1990, as did, a year later, her brother JeanChristophe, who was 29 years old at the time: “My father had already suggested it to me 10 years earlier, right after I got my baccalaureate. At the time, I didn’t want to become a tanner. I wanted to be a geologist…” For 10 years, Jean-Christophe studied, did research and crisscrossed Africa. “A friend advised me to let him have his experiences”, his father recalls. “And the day when I announced his arrival, the foremen applauded”. Continuity was ensured. In 2001, the articles of association changed: Roland Muller became chairman of the
11 september 1966 Fire in the factory, which leads to the company filing for bankruptcy in 1970. 1970 Start-up of activity by Roland Muller. 1990 Arrival of Emmanuelle, Roland Muller’s daughter, and a year later of her brother Jean-Christophe. 2001 Transformation of Tanneries SA into SAS. Roland Muller becomes chairman of the supervisory board and his son Jean-Christophe Muller, chairman of the board of directors.
Indispensable water Water is to the tanner what fire is to the blacksmith. The tannery is still supplied with water by the by-channel built by Aloïse Haas in 1842.
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A family saga Jean-Christophe Muller (on the right), chairman of the board of directors, with his father Roland Muller, chairman of the supervisory board, his mother Elisabeth Muller and his sister Emmanuelle Muller, manager of the quality laboratory.
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supervisory board and Jean-Christophe Muller officially took over the position of chairman of the board of directors, an unruffled change in command. “My father gave me the time to settle in, at my own pace.” In 15 years, the firm had changed, developing in step with the luxury markets. Turnover and production doubled between 1995 and 2005. “Jean-Christophe took over a sound
be ahead of the game. “Today, we can no longer content ourselves with selling our specialities, like the Barenia”, Jean-Christophe Muller explains. “Even excellent quality is no longer enough. Everything hinges on service. We have to constantly listen to our customers and supply them with industrial “custom-made” goods. We have to invest and continuously adapt.”
company and developed it”, his sister, who is the manager of the quality laboratory in the family firm, explains. “He knew how to multiply what our father did. He has real intuition.”
Today, the largest share of production is devoted to new items that must be constantly reinvented. To meet these challenges, the tanner y replaces its machines on a regular basis to stay at the cutting edge of technology. The firm also has to comply with increasingly strict environmental standards. Connected to the inter-communal water treatment plant since the 1980s, whose operating costs and investments it participates in, it acquired a dechroming station in 1993. These different installations enable it to treat the 200 m3 of water required each day for its operations.
In 2009, Tanneries Haas had 80 employees and generated over 40% of its turnover in exports. Current production is mainly intended for leather goods (65%) but also for shoes (20%), saddlery (10%) and clothing (5%). If the firm has resisted the crisis of a sector hit hard by competition, it owes its success to a principle: rigour, quality and service. At a moment when the markets are tending to concentrate, you have to leap in, anticipate, create, invent and test. You need to really organize expertise in specific fields, highlight the craftsmanship aspect while improving industrial development, travel to see what is going on elsewhere and always
The suppleness of its leathers, the quality of the finishing, creativity in colours and appearances, Tanneries Haas did not become the reference in beautiful leather articles by chance. A large number of luxury brands are supplied in Eichhoffen.
A real symbol Each spring for the last 30 years, they return and set their white silhouette down on the factory’s chimney. Noteworthy guests, a symbol of fidelity and renewal, storks are also messengers of the seasons and collections to come.
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From hide to leather How does hide become leather? Here is its story, chapter by chapter, that of Tanneries Haas and its craftsmen who seize a natural product, tame it and shape it. At the end of the line, what was just dead tissue is reborn. 24
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Transforming hide...
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Raw hide
Pelt
Wet-blue
At the slaughterhouse, when the hide is separated from the carcass, it is heavily salted and conserved at 6째C. Most of the raw hides come from French cattle. France is the leading producer and consumer of veal. Recognizable by its reddish coat, the Limousin milk calf is very sought-after for its texture.
After having been rehydrated, rinsed, washed and unhaired, the hide has tripled in volume and is supple and mobile. After going through the beamhouse, the hide is still a fragile and unstable material.
Placed in a drum for 24 hours, the hide takes on a bluish-grey colour. This is the tanning operation properly speaking, which enables the hide to be transformed into leather. The blue colour is due to chromium sulphate, the tanning agent that is fixed in the hide and makes it rotproof.
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Crust
Finishing
“Skeleton�
Splitting separates the crust to leave only the grain. The leather is then sammed, retanned, dyed, then dried. It is ready for the finishing operations.
Glossiness, colour, effects: the material has been given its finishing touches. The leather presents the aesthetic appearance requested by the customer. All these operations transform it into an exceptional product, with an inimitable feel and qualities.
Constantly looking for more beautiful materials, the major manufacturers only use, in fact, the best parts of the skin. Here, a piece of leather after cutting for the creation of a handbag.
...into leather From hide to leather
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Subtle Forest green, amaryllis, peacock blue, safari yellow‌ leather is a material that can be shaped in infinite ways and that offers many possibilities. Playing on colours, feel and glossiness in all their nuances, it captivates major fashion firms and creators.
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BEAMHOUSE 30
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A ballet of nimble and skilful hands catches the slippery skins, accompanied by the deafening sound of the water that flows from the paddles and the staccato rhythm of the blades that cut the flesh and the fat. The whole beamhouse vibrates each morning. In the past, the work was done outside next to the river. It still has a bad reputation because of the odours. At Tanneries Haas, however, this notion is immediately belied. The facilities are modern and ventilated. The tanner’s work is based on the quality of the raw material, which depends on the conditions under which the animal is raised, its food as well as the slaughtering process. When he receives the raw hide, the tanner works blindly. He can’t detect any traces of the animal’s “life” under the coat. The hide can be marked by parasites, blows and scratches, defects that only appear once he has started to work.
The “fifth quarter” At the slaughterhouse, the hide is detached from the carcass. It is then considered a waste product that is part of the “fifth quarter”, which includes offal.
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The refrigerator and the salt cellar When the calf hides arrive salted from the slaughterhouse, they weigh between 8 and 20 kg. They are sorted according to their weight and the colour of their coat. They can be kept in the refrigerator for several months.
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“It takes about four weeks to transform
a raw hide into finished leather.�
From hide to leather
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Pelt The work phase in the beamhouse is crucial. It is the heart of the tannery. For 48 hours in the vat, the hides are washed, rinsed and unhaired‌ The hide swells and triples in thickness. It becomes a soft, viscous, fragile and still unstable material: pelt.
Fleshing, trimming and splitting Sunay and Claude mechanically remove the fat from the hide while strapped into their coat of mail aprons, Karine and Jean-Claude trim of what remains of the flesh with a knife. The hide is then split by Didier and Patrick, that is, cut through its thickness to be equalized at 4 mm. The collagen residue will be used as a by-product to make gelatine.
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The bath The tannery’s operations taken together require 200 m3 of water a day. 36
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From hide to leather
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TANNING Workshop 38
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Unhaired, f leshed and split, the pelt is very vulnerable. It starts to alter after a short lapse of time. You have to act as quickly as possible to stop this irremediable process: this is the role of tanning. The operation properly speaking takes 24 hours and mobilizes four African hardwood drums. This operation will make the leather rotproof. The tanning agents (plant tannins or metals like chromium sulphate) penetrate between the collagen fibres to replace the water molecules and fix the structure. The hides come out blued by the chromium salts: this is the “wet-blue�.
The hide keeps its character Leather, like wood, is a living material. Each hide is different. Once tanned, the material reveals its natural characteristics (folds, veins, scars) like so many witnesses of life.
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The witch’s brew The hides are immersed into a bath at 20°C to which chromium sulphate is added. This results in a green effervescence. “My daughter calls it the witch’s brew”, Franck explains in front of his drum.
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Tannins The word “tan� comes from the Gallic word tan or tann which means oak bark, the tanning agent that was once the most widespread in Europe. The choice of a tannin depends on the texture and colour of the leather that the customer requests. Depending on the regions and climates, there is a very broad palette of plants or minerals recognized for their tanning power, like the chestnut, the mimosa and the quebracho, a South American tree. Thanks to the progress of chemistry, the most frequently used tannin is now chromium sulphate, which has a green colour.
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The beating drum It is the Italian Achille Durio, from the celebrated family of tanners, to whom we owe the invention of the drum in 1920. This large barrel that rotates on a horizontal axis “beats� the hides for 24 hours. They are then removed, marked and stored for 24 hours of ripening. 42
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Wet-blue sorting and splitting As of this phase, custom work begins. Responsible for control, Hubert directs the hides depending on their characteristics and the orders. He has been watching over the sorting of hides, looking for scratches and unearthing the slightest defects for 30 years. Nicolas is his right-hand man. “It takes several years of experience to feel comfortable in the profession.� A little farther on, the splitting team separates the grain from the crust. The tannery only works with the grain, the most precious part of the leather whose final thickness can vary between 0.7 and 2.4 mm.
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From hide to leather
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Rigour and teamwork After splitting, the leather’s final thickness is adjusted with a precision of 2/10th of a millimetre by shaving, a delicate operation requiring teamwork and great rigour. “Each of us has to pull on our side at the same time to not tear the hide”, Emrah and Refik, at the shaving machine, explain. Then the hide is taken to the sampling table. There, Annick and Fabienne, brandishing their electric scissors, expertly cut away the beginnings of any tears.
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From hide to leather
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RETANNING-DYEING Workshop 48
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With 140 colouring and tannin references, the retanning-dyeing workshop resembles a chemistry laboratory... Dragon red, cobalt blue, raspberry, Venetian pink, viridian green, the colours obtained make you dream. Once the wet-blue is sorted and allocated to an order, it is retanned, fat-liquored and dyed. If the colouring then penetrates the entire thickness, the leather is “struck-through”. All these chemical operations give the leather its characteristics: impermeability, feel, suppleness, softness…
Immutable To obtain calf leather, the traditional cycle consists in tanning, retanning, fat-liquoring, dyeing and drying. The gesture for fixing the hide to the beam is always the same at every step.
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Magic potion Novocalf 速 was developed by Jacques-Alfred Haas in the 1950s. After a double tanning, a damp stuffing treatment is done based on nine fatty substances prepared in a water bath and mixed in a large cauldron. The result is a round, soft and supple lather that takes on a beautiful patina.
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“We work on a living material,
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so we have to continuously adjust our dyeing formulas.�
Cutting-edge For its retanning and dyeing operations, the tannery has equipped itself with the latest technologies: automation and drums in stainless steel or polyproylene.
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CURRYING Workshop 54
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The hide is far from having finished its journey. What remains is to refine it before the many finishing operations, working on the body. Here, employees samm it, there, they open it and stretch it. If the shaving has decreased the thickness of its grain, setting out will make it beautiful again by removing wrinkles. “We work on the wrinkles in the right directionâ€?, RĂŠgis explains, while Pascal and Christophe expertly stretched the hide on the vacuum dryer. It is then placed in the dryer for several hours. According to the result required, the drying method will be more or less linear, more or less rapid. Once it is dry, the leather is rehydrated, then softened in the drum or on the stake, then strained.
Working leather The purpose of the various wet and dry currying operations is to mechanically work the leather: dewrinkling, drying, staking, drumming, straining...
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“A leather’s feel and beauty are linked to the fineness of its grain.”
Airing After samming (below), the leather is stretched by the “setting out” operation, which consists in dewrinkling the hide and working its surface .
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In a cloud of steam The leather is pre-dried in a vacuum for two minutes at 80째C. From hide to leather
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Drying Hanging the leathers in the dryer requires great vigilance. Each article has its drying method: quickly for a rigid leather, slower and more linear for increased suppleness.
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From hide to leather
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Straining (or toggling) Bruno and Christophe take care of the straining machine which stretches the leather to prepare it for finishing operations. Staking After having softened the leather on the stake, Yves checks the result.
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FINISHING Workshop 64
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After two weeks of work, the leather goes up to the first floor for its final finishing operations, direction: the f inishing workshop. Here, the challenge is to treat the leather to unify its hue and give it all the desired aspects (metallic, verni, pearly, transparent, pigmented, etc.) using one of two techniques: coating via a cylinder or pulverization by spraying. Plating finalizes the rendering and desired aspect. It is all a matter of dosage and a visual check because the break in the finish must be discreet and natural. The embellished material presents a glossiness, a radiance and a feel that can now be presented to the customer.
An airy gesture The hide that is now leather is supple and light. To protect the leathers, Cynthia always places them “grain on grain�.
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The “kitchen-lab” In the workshop, the colourists look for a new hue that will satisfy the customer’s request. To do so, they prepare the “sauce” that will be pulverized on a test hide.
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Finishing The various finishing steps require a great deal of handling and precision. Here, the two cylinders of the coating machine are being synchronized. 68
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From hide to leather
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Dexterity Printing that unifies the appearance, coating that deposits a layer of pigment, spraying that adjusts the hue, making the leather impermeable or modifying the feel, plating that glazes the leather and gives it its glossy look‌ at the end of all these operations, the leather can become dry, slippery, glossy, verni, pearly...
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CONTROL & SHIPPING Workshop 72
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The end is in sight. After four weeks of production, the leather is finally, or almost, ready on its beam. It still must be checked and tested by the quality control laboratory before going to the warehouse where all the references and outgoing orders are assembled. Far from industrial automation, each piece of leather is inspected, one by one, before being delivered to the customer. Either the customer checks the leathers at the tannery, or they are shipped directly. They will soon be transformed into handbags, shoes, short boots, belts, saddles and other accessories.
The warehouse The firm has set up a hide-marking system that can track each batch throughout the entire production chain until the final phase: the warehouse and shipping.
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The lab The quality laboratory checks resistance to rubbing, tearing, abrasion, flexion, ageing when exposed to UV rays, etc. Each piece of leather produced at the tannery undergoes many tests to make sure that it complies with the customer’s specifications.
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From hide to leather
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A successful test Test tube after a test of the grain’s resistance to the lastometer.
The warehouse Pascal and Cynthia check the break of the leather before it is delivered to the customer. If the heads of the tannery have succeeded each other for generations, the same is true of the staff. “Pascal was born in a drum”, Cynthia chuckles. The son of Germain, the former finishing foreman, Pascal grew up in the factory.
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“Finished leather has been handled between 80 and 120 times.�
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Ready for shipment While the employees are busy preparing the shipments, the customer inspects his order hide by hide.
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From hide to leather
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Art and material
Soft, supple, rigid, smooth, grained, verni, protective, natural‌ Leather has shifted from an immutable article to a sensitive and creative material. To transform it, the tanner is no longer just a craftsman. He has become an artist. 80
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An infinite number of special effects
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More than a colour that you see, than a material that you touch, leather is first and foremost an odour. Climb up to the first floor of Tanneries Haas: a fragrance of handmade authenticity wafts in the air. As soon as you open the door of the finishing workshop where the articles are decked out in their final finery, the odour seizes you: both dark and animal, sweet and velvety. It is the odour of genuine leather. What so many perfumers have tried to put into their eaux de toilette is here, enveloping.
Standing among the beams, JeanChristophe Muller does an inventory in the presence of his team. “Ten red Caviar selection 3, 15 gold Novonappa® selection 1, 15 ivory Ladycalf® selection 2...” Nimble hands move, slide, stop, catch and throw the hides from one beam to another, the hands lingering on the top of the grain, touching and admiring the “hand” of the leather. Whether it is supple, soft, full or rough, the vocabulary recalls that of the oenologist, based on the senses.
Faithful to a more than centennial tradition, Tanneries Haas has developed full-grain leathers: the nobility of the material, the suppleness of the hide, the sensual roundness to the touch underscores the discreet char m of tradition. Barénia® calf leather, a Haas reference, has a characteristic natural finish that permits it to become more and more beautiful as it acquires a patina. It has given its name to a line of Hermès watches.
While ticking off the leathers, he is inexhaustible on their quality. “Here, we work with a living material. It is this material that guides us. We are totally dependent on the quality of our supply.” This quality rests on the cattle farmer. “We try to be in direct contact with our suppliers to choose the best sources. For that, once or twice a year, we visit the farms and the slaughterhouses. Despite all the selections, when we buy a batch of hides, we only obtain very few exceptional leathers.” This does not
Safeguarding know-how
Chameleon Assisted by technical progress, the tanner can now give free rein to his imagination and create a very large palette of colours and textures.
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take into account the increasing rareness of the raw material. In France, about 1.5 million calves were raised in 2008, against 3 million 20 years earlier The director’s hand rests on a light-coloured leather totally produced with plant tannins using a traditional method. “This represents a very small part of our activity. The process is tricky to carry out. But I am dedicated to safeguarding the know-how. And why not redevelop it?”
The stuff of fashion Just because you inherit a process doesn’t mean you are a prisoner of tradition. Tanneries Haas has evolved to be in the moment while making sure to perpetuate its requirement of quality on the cutting edge of innovation. Faced with such a vast variety, you can get lost. Plasticized to look like vinyl, glittering and gilded, lacquered, silk-screened hot blue, woven like a plaid with strips of different colours or completely soft with a cloud-like effect…
you can find on the Haas firm’s beams, alongside traditional leathers, powdered leathers, matte or delicately semi-gloss finishes, tone-on-tone patterns, rubbed or dusted, leathers with a peach skin feel… Among the samples, striking colours and surprising materials emerge. “In 20 years, fashion has ramped up”, Jean-Christophe Muller explains. Handbags, luggage, shoes and belts are stars in all the magazines. The influence of fashion is exerted on all the forms, but also on colours and materials. Leather sometimes turns into lace, decks itself out in beads or metal… The inspiration is infinite. “In our production, the share of fashion articles has gone from 20 to 50% in 15 years.” “Leather has an ultra-futuristic technical dimension, totally in the spirit of current collections. As paradoxical as it might seem, this natural material succeeds in translating special effects better than any synthetic fibre,” Claude Vuillermet, a fashion designer in
Festival of colours To obtain the desired colour, you need a skilful mixture of technical operations and patience. Before shifting to the industrial mode, the firm makes samples and develops prototypes in direct partnership with its customers.
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Made in France Faithful to a more than centennial tradition, Tanneries Haas develops full-grain leathers: the nobility of the material, the suppleness of the leather, the sensual roundness to the touch underscore the discreet charm of tradition. A supplier to the greatest names in fashion, the company is recognized for its know-how that serves leather goods, shoes and saddlery.
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charge of trends at the “Leather” trade show in Paris, enthusiastically said not long ago in the french magazine Figaro Madame. Progress in chemistry has made a considerable contribution to this. It has given leather an infinite number of colours and properties (water resistance, lightness, fineness, feel…). Apart from these technical feats that have of course been partially responsible for the increased interest in leather, the material has gained in subtleness. It has changed its appearance but also its image. Yesterday archaic and timeless, humanity’s first raw material is a chameleon today that lends itself to every metamorphosis. “We have to be very close to our customers and avail ourselves of every possibility to meet our customers’ needs”, Marc Deyber, the sales manager, points out. As luxury means exclusivity today, Tanneries Haas is banking on the “custom-made”.
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Its motto is availability, reactivity, flexibility… and interpretation, because requests can go from the most unusual to the most extravagant: “for next summer, we’re looking for a thalasso blue leather”; “we’ll need a slightly rough leather, with a cat’s tongue effect”: “we’d like a very supple metallic red leather”… “It’s our job to translate the designer’s language into that of our technicians”, Jacques Kress, the export manager, explains. Once it receives a request, the firm makes samples in record time. It then develops the article in partnership with the customers. The teams work in direct contact with the creation studios and frequently go to Paris or Milan to present new items. “If the sample is accepted, our challenge is then to industrialize the prototype to deliver the order on time.” In the “kitchen-lab”, the colourists are busy preparing their dye bases. A ladle in one hand, they call out their formulas:
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“91 of black, 90 of dark brown, 75 of white, 10 of burgundy…” Once the sauce is ready, the leather has to be sprayed twice to lightly cover it. It is checked in the light booth and then the sample goes to the quality laboratory where its mechanical, water and UV resistance as well as the solidity of its finishing are tested. Are the test results satisfactory? If so, production is launched. “Twenty years ago, we took part in one trade show a year, in Paris or Italy. Today, we attend six or eight events annually. And for each show, we prepare a new collection. Between the shows, runways and deliveries, we have very little time to get new articles ready”, Jean-Christophe Muller explains. “Preparing a collection is a profession in itself. That’s why we now work with style agencies that help us uncover, decode and analyze future trends. We have to find or develop items with our techniques that can correspond to the new fashions.” For the 20102011 fall/winter collection, the tannery called on a renowned Parisian creator, Peggy Huyn Kinh. She loves beautiful leathers, especially for handbags, her favourite area. “I love leather because I love things that last, take on a patina and become more beautiful with time”, she immediately points out. Her way of working with what she considers one of the best French leather firms consists in materializing her desires or her intuitions. With Ladycalf®, a very beautiful heavy and natural leather, she imagined a handbag for a weekend car trip. “In addition to its resistance characteristics, Haas’ leather has beauty and elegance. It has style.” By offering her talent and the singularity of her imagination, she has helped nourish the creative dynamics that make Haas progress, and correspond to the firm’s values: simplicity, modernity, tradition, functionality, universality… in short, everything that makes up “luxury”.
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A hide, a handbag In partnership with Tanneries Haas, the creator Peggy Huyn Kinh imagined a picnic blanket bag. Made from a single piece of hide, a very beautiful heavy leather, it reigns in the boot or on the back seat. It can in turn be a duffle bag, a bolster or a blanket to improvise a luncheon on the grass.
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In the wings 8.40 a.m. The bell rings in the factory. It is the hour for the pause for the employees who started work early in the morning. Meanwhile, in the offices, the staff orients and plans production while thinking about new products. 94
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Maintain close links Led by Roland Muller, the tannery’s former employees are invited to spend a day at the company to relive the gestures, places and faces that are familiar to them. Some of them even have a son, a nephew, a brother or sister working at Haas who still maintain close links with the profession and perpetuate its saga‌
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Text & Photography Aude Boissaye & Sébastien Randé
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translation Eileen Powis Print e-center
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