If one thing’s as certain as death and taxes, it’s that leather will always be cool. Whether it’s a perfectly broken-in motorcycle jacket or a pair of soft tan midcentury chairs, a touch of leather is a fail-safe way to elevate your style. While the material isn’t new to the design world—it’s been integrated into interiors for thousands of years—its popularity hasn’t waned, especially in recent decades. (The 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s proved popular for leather—particularly in sofas and chairs.) Today, designers’ enthusiasm for the hide hasn’t waned and, in fact, their means of experimenting withits limits has only increased. Take Elliott Barnes’s Endless Summer II Bench, which employs Synderme, a mixed-composition product that uses recycled-leather cutoffs as a main component, or Francesco Balzano’s Murano Gueridon table, which flawlessly finishes an entire table with the natural skin. Bringing some lightness to the genre are English designer Faye Toogood, who had fun playing with color and shape in her Squash mirror for Poltrona Frau, and Fabiana Machado, with her Continuous chair—a seat that brings to mind the outline of a puzzle piece or hand-drawn maze. On the darker side, quite literally, is Gio Pagani’s Voyage d’Une Nuit bed: a high-impact sleeper fully covered in glossy-black leather.
Squash Mirror, Faye Toogood
Produced as part of Italian brand Poltrona Frau’s Squash collection, this mirror is proof that design can be both chic and fun. From the creative mind of London artist and designer Faye Toogood, this amoebic piece has a leather-upholstered frame that gives it a soft, tactile finish. According to Toogood, traditional English folk leathercraft inspired the Squash mirror, which comes in three sizes (the largest has options to be wall-mounted or freestanding) and three colors. Its sensuous curves will bring panache to any room. Floor mirror, $10,030
Murano II, Francesco Balzano
With a meticulous eye for scale, balance, and composition, French designer Francesco Balzano has risen to the top of nearly every “Best of” list the design world churns out. His limited-edition Murano II table (available in a run of 12 signed-and-numbered pieces) is an updated version of his previous Murano resin collection. Featuring a serpentine base and a finish of natural-dyed leather over wood, this new release showcases Balzano’s unmatched ability to combine technical skill with creative prowess. $36,500
Voyage d’Une Nuit, Gio Pagani
Beautifully provocative, this bed is not for the subtle of style. Designed by Gio Pagani through StudioTwentySeven, this leather-upholstered showstopper brings a punch of attitude rooted in a classic 1970s-Italian-design sensibility. The low, vertically striated headboard—a wooden frame covered with hand-stitched leather—provides a striking, textured look, and the base has a slightly tapered silhouette that brings a hint of gracefulness. $24,500
Continuous Chair, Atelier FM
Like the fine lines of a pencil sketch, the silhouette of Atelier FM’s Continuous chair expertly plays with solids, voids, and shadows for a piece that leans into art-object territory. Designed by Atelier FM founder Fabiana Machado, the chair, which can be purchased solo or as a set with the Continuous ottoman, demonstrates a worldly familiarity with craft deployed through modernist lines. A homed-in material selection—in this case, a hand-applied American-walnut veneer and full-grain-leather upholstery—furthers the balance between classic and contemporary, and the under-back niche provides storage for a few favored books or magazines. $23,090
Endless Summer II, Elliott Barnes
Debuted during Paris Design Week 2025, the white version of Elliott Barnes’s Endless Summer II Bench—named for the 1960s documentary film featuring two California surfers on a trip around the world—takes leatherwork to the next level. Created exclusively for the Invisible Collection, the limited-edition item is the next-gen iteration of a Barnes original. The white option features an undulating leather seat, while its sister bench, in black, is made with Synderme, a material composed of leather fibers, paper fibers, and latex that allows for the reuse of leather scraps that would otherwise go to waste. $29,000
