We’re really happy to share that ADesignStudio is part of LOST HiDE, a Melbourne Design Week exhibition curated by Emma Elizabeth and presented by Local Design.
Held at The Store, Abbotsford Convent, LOST HiDE brings together a group of Australian designers to respond to a shared material brief: leather hides that may otherwise have been discarded. The exhibition looks at how these materials can be reimagined, repaired, transformed and given another life through design.
For us, it has been a really enjoyable opportunity to step slightly outside of our usual process and think about material in a different way. Leather has such a strong presence — it carries marks, softness, weight, structure and memory. It is a material that already feels like it has lived a life, so working with it in this context felt like a natural invitation to slow down and respond to what was already there.
Rather than treating the hides as a flat surface or a decorative finish, we were interested in the tension between softness and structure. The work explores how a material often associated with permanence, durability and utility can be reshaped into something more open-ended and unexpected.
The broader exhibition includes furniture, lighting, textiles, sculptural pieces and material experiments, with each designer approaching the same starting point in their own way. That is one of the things we have loved most about being involved — seeing how differently everyone has responded to the brief. The result is a thoughtful and varied exhibition that sits somewhere between design, craft, reuse and storytelling.
LOST HiDE features more than 30 works created from reclaimed leather hides salvaged from Swiss Design, bringing together around 15 designers and studios in a collaborative exploration of reinvention. The exhibition positions leather not just as a surface treatment, but as a vehicle for experimentation, narrative and transformation through bespoke and limited-edition works.
A big thank you to Emma Elizabeth, Local Design and Darren McKinnon of Swiss Design Furniture for inviting us to be part of the project, and for creating the space for these materials to have another life.
LOST HiDE is open as part of Melbourne Design Week, running 14–24 May 2026 at The Store, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford. Entry is free, with no booking required.
We’d love for you to visit if you’re in Melbourne this week.
Images courtesy of Photographer Charles Helleu | Art Direction STUDiOFOAM & NGV
