Exploring Crocodile Skin in Furniture Design

Our client, Heng Long Leather, is a Singapore-based tannery renowned for supplying premium crocodile and alligator leather to luxury fashion brands. They tasked us with exploring how crocodile leather could be used in furniture design.

Challenges with Crocodile Skin in Furniture

Our research showed that while genuine crocodile skin has been used in furniture, it often looks disjointed because of:

• 1. Joins disrupting the natural scale patterns.

• 2. Limited usable surface area (48 x 48 cm from the belly but this is also dependent on the size of the crocodile we get to work with).

• 3. The inter scales (the indents between individual scales) can be challenging to tame while sewing straight profiles

• These limitations meant crocodile skin is best optimised with smaller furniture pieces, pieces that can avoid joins to preserve the material's beauty.

Designing a Stool with Crocodile Leather

We proposed a stool with cross legs, using a single piece of belly leather for the seat and smaller cuts for the legs. This design avoided unsightly joins, allowing the individual crocodile's natural scale patterns to take center stage. The result was a cohesive, elegant stool that highlighted the material’s luxurious texture.

Lessons from Using Crocodile Skin in Furniture

The prototype exceeded expectations but revealed areas for improvement:

1. Exposed Staples
   Visible staples on the stool’s underside detracted from its premium appeal. For version two, we are exploring a finishing technique to hide the staples.

1. Edge Profile
   Crocodile leather products look more refined with with regular edges.

1. We tested this on a follow-up side table, incorporating a top-stitch seam for definition. This detail will be added to the stool’s second iteration.

Expanding Exotic Leather Furniture Design

The stool remains our favourite piece from this collaboration. It successfully showcased the potential of crocodile leather while avoiding common pitfalls like mismatched joins.

Building on its success, we created other furniture pieces using lessons from the stool, particularly around finishes and edge detailing.

Luxury in Every Detail

This project demonstrated how thoughtful design can unlock the potential of exotic materials like crocodile leather. While challenging to work with, the material’s impact, when handled well, is unparalleled.