When you only see well-worn bags that have had their day, she sees great potential. Apron around the waist, in a workshop that smells of leather, Lise Harribey, 42, sorts with an expert eye pieces of leather, buckles, clasps and zippers intended for a second life.
It looks like she's been doing this all her life, but this communicator has recently matured a retraining project which led to the creation of a company, Mutane, in February 2021 in Lapouyade in Gironde. It manufactures satchels and small leather goods there (clutches, wallets, card holders, purses, etc.) exclusively from second-hand leather, recovered from the Relais Gironde, from individuals or from recycling centers. This leather, if not recovered, ends up buried or incinerated. It is not recyclable.
Creations based on finds
“I only work with genuine, post-consumer leather; I don’t buy new leather or offcuts”, she specifies from the start, very attentive to the sobriety of her project. "I dismantle the bags (sometimes collected from the Relais) for buckles (magnetic buttons, zippers, etc.) and I also have a partnership with Smicval, the joint Intercommunal Union for Collection and Valorization of Libournais and Haute -Gironde, to recover sofa leather”. Until now it was his father, who assiduously frequented the recycling centers like any good handyman, who found him leather sofas to be cut up.
"On the sofas, we manage to recover the back and the sides, sometimes the backrest and the cushions too", explains Lise Harribey. Once the sofas have been scalped, she cleans the most beautiful pieces with soapy water, administers a renovating balm to them if necessary, and can even re-dye them in certain places. "The challenge is to know how to manufacture in series to optimize both time and the economic model, but with the constraint of the resource" she delivers. Her creations are conditioned by her finds because she compels herself not to acquire any new pieces. She only buys her yarn on end of stock or empty workshops. “With this sofa, she shows, I told myself that I could make a satchel or two and finally there is a scratch in the wrong place and I can only make one. »
Made in France, artisanal
Once the materials have been identified, it's classic leather goods, understand "cutting, patronage and assembly" but with leather that has already been worn. It takes him an average of four to five hours to make a satchel, the flagship piece of his collection. It was designed for the end-of-study project for his leather goods CAP, for his son's return to school. Matching pencil cases, pouches, notebook covers are also made by the leather goods maker for its “back to school” range.
"There may be two but not three identical bags, these are very small series", explains Lise Harribey. To those who are skeptical about the price, 160 euros for a satchel, she replies that it is made in France by craftsmen and that “a plain satchel can be transformed into a handbag after having had its time at school. » Robust, the items can also be repaired with Mutane, if necessary. Trials were carried out with an ESAT (employing people with disabilities) in Mérignac and an adapted company in Charente to assign them some of the tasks. “This SSE (social and solidarity economy) cost has also been integrated into the price of the products”, she specifies.
Lise Harribey hopes to soon offer bananas and tote bags, using very soft jacket leather. Among her first clients, some of the 106 co-owners of La Possiblerie, a third place in which she set up her studio and which has existed for four years. Word of mouth and events in the third place have already given it initial visibility. Her site will become a retailer in the coming months and will make “the next leather goods” even more accessible, as she likes to call it.
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