Zhūquè 朱雀 (Vermilion Bird)

The shell on the outside is marbled red cordovan from Rocado in Ponte a Egola, Tuscany. Six months in the vegetable tanning pits, then the surface is shaved by hand to expose the vein and fibre structure of the shell underneath. That is the marbling. It is not a print, it is the leather itself, and every collar in this run carries a different pattern because every shell does. Zhūquè is the brightest of the four. The piece we cut this from sat closest to the centre of the shell, where the colour saturates deepest and the veining is tighter.

The lining and keeper are made from Bisanzio Oro by Conceria Puccini Attilio in Santa Croce sull'Arno. This is a full-grain vegetable-tanned cowhide, drum-dyed, oil-fattened, then hand-stained with an aniline metallic finish. It is not real gold leaf. The cloudy, slightly rustic metallic look is the finisher's work, applied by hand piece by piece, which is why no two panels match. The full inside of the strap is lined with it, so when you bend the collar back, the gold flashes out from underneath the red.

The buckle is a west-end style, the classic horseshoe shape with the gentle inward curve at the top. It is made by Hility in 24K gold PVD over 316L stainless steel. PVD plating runs at 800–4,000 HV hardness compared to 100–200 HV on standard electroplated brass, so the finish won't rub off the high points the way it does on cheaper hardware. A single gold screw rivet sits at the buckle end where the strap turns back on itself, and the keeper is wrapped in matching Bisanzio Oro.

Stitching is hand saddle stitched with two needles using Lajin Twist gold metallic thread. Saddle stitching means if one length of thread breaks, the next stitch still locks. It is the same construction Hermès uses on their leather goods, and it is the reason this collar will outlast every machine-stitched collar your dog will ever wear.

Edges are burnished in ten stages using Tokonole, a Japanese water-based burnishing gum made from natural paste, resin, wax and silicon. Each pass slicks the fibres down until the edge takes a wet, glassy shine.

The collar is wider through the body than the smaller pieces in the collection. Built and sized for medium to large dogs, where the proportions can carry the weight of the leather and the scale of the buckle.