Western Workshop Series No. 3 with Maharam and RD
On October 8, Western joined Maharam and fashion brand RD at Maharam’s Culver City showroom for the third workshop in our 2026 series, an evening built around leather, material exploration and the satisfaction of making something by hand.
The showroom offered a fitting place to begin. Maharam’s expansive material library surrounded the group with textiles, color and texture, while tables of Edelman leather introduced another layer of possibility, from smooth saturated surfaces to hides where grain and natural variation remain part of the character.
All photography by Ernesto Sernas for Western Office
THE SETTING: Maharam Culver City
The evening started by moving through the showroom and spending time with the materials themselves.
Maharam’s Culver City space is designed around this kind of close looking, with textiles and leather arranged across open tables and gridded displays that invite comparison. Color shifts from one compartment to the next, familiar neutrals sit alongside unexpected patterns, and materials that might usually appear as a small specification sample can be experienced at a much larger scale.
For a group accustomed to selecting materials for interiors, the evening offered a chance to approach them from another direction: through touch, construction and use.
THE MATERIAL: Leather in Hand
Leather changes once it leaves the sample library and reaches the worktable.
Guests selected their own combinations from Maharam’s Edelman leather offering, considering color, texture and feel before beginning to cut. Edelman’s approach celebrates the natural qualities of leather, allowing grain, markings and subtle variations to remain visible, so each selection carried its own character before the making even began.
That individuality became part of the workshop. The same pattern could shift considerably depending on the leather chosen, the placement of a contrasting handle or the details added during construction.
THE EVENING: Material, Made Personal
The third Western Workshop brought the material library into use.
Leather that might ordinarily be considered through a specification, memo sample or upholstery application became something guests could cut, fold, fasten and carry. Working at that scale made qualities such as thickness, flexibility, grain and color immediately tangible, while the finished pieces carried the choices made by each person around the table.
By the end of the evening, everyone left with an object of their own and a closer understanding of the material that shaped it.
A material becomes much easier to know once it has been in your hands.
THE WORKSHOP: From Material to Object
With RD guiding the making process, the showroom gradually became a working studio.
Leather was measured and marked, then cut, punched and assembled by hand. Rivets created both structure and detail, while contrasting handles and material combinations gave each piece a distinct personality. The process was direct and tactile, with every decision becoming visible in the finished object.
Around the table, people compared colors, borrowed tools and worked through the small adjustments that come with making something yourself. A flat piece of leather slowly became dimensional, and by the end of the evening each guest had completed a small bag to take home.
The transformation was simple enough to follow and detailed enough to make the material feel entirely different by the time the piece was finished.
