Luxury Leathers: Tanning the Ocean’s Hides

By Ralph Nicholson

The Samurai, the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan, used the stingray as if their lives depended on it, stretching the dried and tanned skins across their shields for protection.

Louis XIV of France, still the longest-serving European monarch, used the same type of skin as hand-grips for his swords in the 17th and 18th century.

In the 1920s, Alfred Dunhill Limited, the maker of luxury accessories, covered one of its cigarette lighters with stingray skin sanded down, in a process known as shagreen.

And last month, Frenchman Jean Charles Grenon-Andrieu brought the art of using stingray skin, and a host of other leathers from the sea, to Playa Tamarindo.

Mr Grenon-Andrieu has been at the forefront of the fish skin industry, ever since it resurfaced in France about 20 years ago. He’s had shops in Naples, Florida and the US Virgin Islands, and swears by the strength and durability of his products.

“Look at this,” Mr Grenon-Andrieu exudes, as he holds a flaming cigarette lighter against a shoulder bag made from the skin of a stingray. “This is around 20 times stronger than ordinary leather.”

Shark skin is traditionally considered among the toughest of marine exotic leathers. In fact, in the past the raw, abrasive skins were used by early boat builders for sandpaper.

More recently shark skin has given way to that of the sting ray, whose richly-textured skin has a striking, one-of-a-kind, backbone crown. In the case of the eagle ray, the backbone can be seen the entire length of the skin.

“I had a Harley Davidson in the US,” Mr Grenon-Andrieu says. “All the leather parts were made out of the skin of stingray, the seat, the panniers, the handgrips.”

His interest was first piqued while in California about 20 years ago, when he began importing skins from Iceland.

© Ralph Nicholson

Today, Ocean Leather, his new shop on Tamarindo’s main street, is filled with handbags, clutch purses, wallets, belts, hip flasks, picture frames, spectacle cases, passport holders, all made from marine animal skins.

There are dozens of different wallets, made from the skins of both Pacific and Atlantic salmon, carp, sea bass, cod, African Nile perch, crocodile, alligator, stingray, eagle ray, spotted wolf fish and sea snake.

“I like wallets,” Mr Grenon-Andrieu says, “They sell well. I have found that men are actually pickier than women when it comes to wallets. I listened to people, what they were saying, and ended up make many different types of wallets.”

Mr Grenon-Andrieu has up to 50 different craftsmen around the world, working to make products for him, although currency exchange rates have made it more difficult to bring inventory from Europe.

All the skins are either from farmed animals or those caught for food.

His mako shark skin comes from Japan where it is used for food and medicine, the African Nile perch from farms in Madagascar and other parts of East Africa, and the distinctive spotted wolf fish — a bottom dweller, living up to 750 meters (2400 feet) below the Labrador Shelf — comes to him via fish by-catch from the Atlantic fleets.

Thus far he is using the skins of tilapia (it resembles that of crocodile) from the US, but hopes in the future to deal with local suppliers.

The skins of the masked water snake come from farms in Indonesia, while the Australians send him farmed crocodile, some shark and the skins of the giant cane toad.

In fact, the Australians would like to send him as much cane toad as he can handle — it is after all, one of the world’s best examples of a feral species. Some 3000 young cane toads were introduced to northern Queensland from Hawaii in June of 1935, in an attempt to control the native cane beetle. They are now believed to number more than 200 million.

The skin of at least one of them is now in Tamarindo, as a clutch purse.

© Ralph Nicholson

The source of his eagle ray is another story and one that remains a secret — there is only one farm in the world producing sufficient quantities.

Mr Grenon-Andrieu says the production process for fish skins is more environmentally friendly than that of regular leather.

There is no hair to be removed from the skins, which means there is no need for lime or acid in the tanning process which is the most destructive of the tanning chemicals.

Most of the skins are taken from canneries which are processing the fish for food. This cuts down on the amount of waste at the cannery because the skins are normally discarded.

The tanning process for fish leather takes anywhere from four to seven weeks, depending upon the species. He prefers vegetable dyes to chemicals.

“Only a handful of companies concentrate on fish leather production,” Mr Grenon-Andrieu adds, “and this small industry is doing something most of America has recently learned to do, it’s recycling.”

He first came to Costa Rica ten years ago, visiting a half dozen times since then.

“Last year I was in Escazu in June visiting some friends,” he recalls. “I went all over the country looking for places to set up and finally I chose Tamarindo. Here I see more of the type of people who are likely to be interested in my products.”

His products range in price from $29 to several thousand.

“I used to have crocodile skin bags for $6000, but I don’t think I am going to sell many of those in Tamarindo,” he concedes. “I am aiming more for the tourist market. This is going to be my first season here and I am going to have a couple of high-end items, but really just to see what happens.”