Behind the Seams: A Day in Our Workshop

Every Vaelrum jacket starts as a single hide on a workshop table. We spent a day following one of them from the first cut to the final press.

8am: choosing the hide

Each hide is laid out under natural light and checked by hand for grain, thickness and marks. Only the best pieces of each hide go into the panels you see; the rest becomes linings, tabs and trims.

11am: cutting

Patterns are laid out to follow the natural direction of the leather, so every panel stretches the same way. It is slow work: a single jacket can take more than an hour to cut.

2pm: stitching

Our artisans stitch each jacket on heavy-duty machines, finishing the stress points (pockets, shoulders and the zip) by hand. Seams are folded and pressed flat as they go.

5pm: finishing

Hardware is fitted, the edges are painted and the jacket is given a final inspection before it is wrapped for its new home. By the end of the day, one hide has become one jacket.

You can feel when a jacket has been made in a hurry. We would rather make fewer, and make them properly.

Our workshop lead