Leather vessels at Milan

Talia Luvaton is bringing a new group of hand-shaped leather vessels to Milan Design Week 2026, where they will be shown at SaloneSatellite from April 21 to 26. (luvatonstudio.com, salonemilano.it) Luvaton’s project is called TRACE, and her studio says it translates human movement into sculptural form. Her Milan listing places the work at SaloneSatellite, Hall 5, Booth E-13. (luvatonstudio.com) Luvaton is a Tel Aviv-based designer and leather craft artist who works with vegetable-tanned leather. Yanko Design reported on April 11 that she shapes the material by hand with wet-forming techniques and custom molds. (yankodesign.com) Wet-forming means leather is softened with moisture, pressed into shape, and left to dry so it holds volume instead of lying flat. In Luvaton’s case, that process uses pressure, moisture, and time, which Yanko Design said makes exact duplication difficult. (yankodesign.com) The forms in TRACE began with observational drawings of the human body, then moved into three-dimensional vessels. Yanko Design described the finished pieces as full and curved, with shapes closer to anatomy than to conventional leather goods. (yankodesign.com) Milan Design Week runs across the city from April 20 to 26, while SaloneSatellite opens April 21 and is reserved for designers under 35. That puts Luvaton’s vessels inside the fair’s emerging-talent section rather than the larger brand pavilions. (dezeen.com, salonemilano.it, vogueadria.com) SaloneSatellite was created in 1998 as a platform for young designers, and the 2026 edition again focuses on early-career studios presenting prototypes and experimental work. In Milan this year, that context matters because the week mixes major commercial launches with smaller object-led debuts like TRACE. (salonemilano.it, dezeen.com) Luvaton’s studio frames leather not as a surface but as “skin,” a material that can hold memory, tension, and movement. The same site says the brand uses plant-based tanning methods and local manufacturing. (luvatonstudio.com) The Milan presentation also includes other vessel projects from her studio, including TOHA and HEALED. Yanko Design said HEALED uses tattoo artists who work directly onto leather with electric needles. (luvatonstudio.com, yankodesign.com) What visitors will see, then, is not leather used for bags or upholstery, but leather pushed into the territory of sculpture and containers. In Hall 5 at SaloneSatellite, Luvaton is betting that a material associated with utility can also carry the visual weight of a body. (luvatonstudio.com, yankodesign.com)