CELEBRATING THE SUNRISE CEREMONY

It’s a double entendre on Easter Sunday, but this incredible and intricate leatherwork deserves a closer look.

We’re talking about the Sunrise Ceremony Jacket. (Y’all can see the play on words and why it felt fitting to talk about it today, right?)

One day, we’ll stop regaling y’all with tales of all the marvelous and awe-inspiring things we saw and experienced on our trip to Europe last summer… but that day is not today. At the top of our list and forefront of our minds at the moment? The unbelievable leatherwork. Truly, y’all – it is absolutely wondrous to behold.

“We introduced it a little in the Anasazi pieces,” Cheryl explained. “And I could talk about it until I’m blue in the face, but words can’t really do it justice. The way these craftsmen and women are able to manipulate leather – entirely by hand, by the way – is so intricate and elaborate and precise. So whereas in the Anasazi, we used the accented color leather lacing to mimic the Anasazi pottery designs, in the Sunrise Ceremony Jacket it is a dimensional basketweave, essentially working three or four colors of leather into a woven plaid. It’s remarkable.”

The bodice of the jacket is a rich red (“Spice”) goat suede in a cropped straight-line silhouette, trimmed with tonal leather, but the showstopping detail shows up in the sleeves and yoke.

“As soon as we got home, we started sketching out ideas and working on how to incorporate this leather manipulation into our designs,” Cheryl said. “But here’s where it gets tricky: because it is all done by hand, it’s very expensive to do, so we have to be very judicious with it, we have to make it count. On the Sunrise Ceremony Jacket, we chose the upper and outer, it almost serves to frame the jacket.”