Shoes, belts and wallets are not the only things that can be made out of alligator leather, and professor Bonnie Belleau has devoted time and effort to prove it.
For the past seven years, Belleau, other professors and students in the LSU School of Human Ecology have taken on a fashion project working with exotic leathers, including American alligator, emu and ostrich.
“Our overall goal is to enhance and promote these types of exotic leathers in the domestic market,” Belleau said. “The offshore markets in Europe and Asia are much stronger for exotic leather than what we have here in the U.S.”
The project primarily has involved designing garments for women using American alligator leather, Belleau said.
“Traditionally, the market for exotic leather has been for boots, belts and wallets for men,” she said. “We’re trying to expand the market for women, and that goes beyond shoes and handbags.”
Belleau said the project started when a tannery opened in Lafayette. At the time, the tannery primarily dealt with softening, tanning, dying and finishing alligator leather, she said.
“We were talking about economic development within the state and looking at natural resources that we have,” she said. “We wanted to get our research in some area that would benefit the state economically.”
After meeting with industry partners, Belleau and her team decided to take on the project, which has coincided with a rising international interest in exotic leathers, she said.
Most of the designing and creating is done in a lab located in the Human Ecology building, and many students have been involved in the process, Belleau said.
Her expertise in apparel design has allowed Belleau to follow her designs from inception to final product to presentation.
“One of the things I do is design and execute some prototype garments and fashion products to show the industry some of what might be done,” she said. “We have entered a number of design competitions and have brought prototype garments to trade shows and commodity group meetings.”
Belleau said the project has been fulfilling for her, both as a professor and a researcher.
“It’s been rewarding to be able to work in a research area that I can also bring into the classroom,” she said. “It’s much more feasible to have your instruction and research coincide.”
The project has found support from a number of different sources, including the Louisiana Alligator Farmers and Ranchers Association, the Louisiana Alligator Advisory Board, the Louisiana Emu Association, and a Board of Regents grant, Belleau said.
Madelaine Joffrion, an apparel design sophomore, also has been involved with apparel design, but her project has developed a little differently.
Joffrion started designing her own line of purses and since sold more than 300 of them to friends and the public.
Joffrion said she saw a friend’s purse and realized how easy it would be to make a purse of her own.
“We started making them as a hobby,” Joffrion said. “Some of my friends saw them and wanted them, so I started selling them.”
With the help of her grandmother, who taught her how to sew and who lets Joffrion use her house to make the purses, Joffrion has successfully designed two styles of purses that she has sold to the public.
Joffrion sells one style for $25 and the other for $40.
“We’ve put some in hair salons and in some stores in St. Francisville and Hammond,” Joffrion said. “I also have a couple of friends in a sorority, and we sold 25 of the same strawberry purses to them for $25 a piece.”
Joffrion recently donated a purse with tiger stripes to be auctioned off at an alumni silent auction to be held this month, she said.