Exotic animal skins are an important and growing part of high-end fashion and even mid-end fashion.
Today's most popular prestigious luxury brands such as Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Celestina and Yves Saint Laurent have embraced exotic skins or faux exotic skins in an increasing number of designs.
To match this trend there a number of new high-end brands that have succeeded in the market through a focus on exotic skins. Nancy Gonzalez is the most renowned of these, having brought crocodile skins to the limelight. Today many of her bags can be found in the leading department stores in as great a number as the older brands such as Chanel, Lanvin and many others.
The most recent exotic skin to surface has been Stringray, also known as shagreen (or chagrin). Stingray skin has long been used for fashion however the design of products was very basic, and it was never taken in by designers willing to push it into the luxuries limelight.
Part of the issue was that stingray skin has been notoriously difficult to work with, as it is a very tough skin and difficult to bend and to manipulate to use for the complex demands of design in today's accessories market.
However, over the last 5 years great strides have been made by select manufacturers (who keep their techniques closely guarded secrets) to treat stingray skin to render it softer, give it tones and work with it within complex designs.
As a result, starting from 2006 and 2007 we have seen an increase in the number of Stingray leather accessories surfacing in the accessories market - particularly at the luxury end (since working with the stingray leather is a complex hand worked process).
In 2009 and 2010 this has culminated in a large number of accessory products hitting the market.
Interestingly, because working with Stringray remains a delicate and less well known process many of the largest brand names have chosen to join the market with print stringray and faux stringray engraved in traditional leather. The number of faux stringray products lining shelves today in stores like Bergdorf Goodman are amongst the most prominent skin styles today.
Brands such as Lanvin, Chanel and many others use terms such as 'caviar' printed leather or printed stringray to describe their own version of the stingray styled leathers. It is possibly the largest trend in high-end stores of 2010.
Meanwhile the real Stingray leather products are in relatively short supply. Niche brands working with stringray bring them out, and the larger brands bring out their experiments with the stingray leather - which sell out relatively quickly.
Stingray skin is a fashion trend to be watched. As manufacturers and designers learn more about the leather and how to bend it to fit their designs and vice versa, expect to see more and more real stingray leather luxury accessories on the market.
