Emily Harrison and Jennie Engelhardt have created an ethical alternative for leather lovers with their fashion house Hare+Hart. While their products use genuine leather, it’s sourced from free range, cage free animals.
The designers became friends while studying at Minnesota’s Carlton College, but their wanderlust led them to Argentina where Hare+Hart is now based. It seemed fated that the friends would discover the country’s pampas, the fertile plains which give birth to one of the world’s leading leather industries. Englehardt completed her senior studies in Buenos Aires, while Harrison traveled there to complete a sommelier course.
But fashion became their futures when they began to observe the lifestyle of the Argentinean cattle. The cows, goats, and other creatures are given room to graze before they’re slaughtered humanely for their meat and skin. The animals lead better lives, and the leather is never marred. It’s a win all round.
Hare+Hart launched in 2009 with its leather jackets, but it’s recently added handbags to the mix. It started small with its new spring collection of vegetable tanned, cow hair purses, but plans to expand the range in future.
“We see accessories as our growth market,” Engelhardt explained. “We’d like to stay in leather and continue into other leather categories as well.“
While many animal lovers won’t be impressed by Hare+Hart, I see it as a great compromise. It’s something like the way many of us opt to eat only free-range chicken, eggs, and pork. It’s about choosing to incorporate animal products into our lives, but really considering that choice and its implications.
What do you think of Hare+Hart’s ethical leather accessories?
