Commissioned by Wallpaper* Magazine to participate in their annual Handmade exhibition, Todd Bracher Studio was paired with Amorim, a Portuguese cork manufacturer, to produce an art piece exploring this familiar medium in a fun, unfamiliar context. In this case, corkskin made from thin sheets of solid cork bonded together, is treated like a textile and fabricated into a jacket. Image Todd Bracher Studio.

The ancient cork trees dotted across the hillsides in Portugal are considered so important to life that here it is illegal to cut them down, dead or alive. And harvesting the bark is so integral to the landscape that farming has evolved around them. The beautiful black pigs reared on their acorns are valuable enough to be hidden far from the road.