Babiche is a style of interwoven leather or gut, traditionally used in the making of snowshoes. The First Nations people of eastern Canada passed on the technique to French settlers who incorporated it into their chair designs. Popularized in the 1600’s, the babiche chair has become a familiar icon of traditional Quebec furniture design. For their Awadare collection, Montréal/Milan design collective Samare have revisited this traditional fusion. Working with local welders and Huron weavers, Samare have juxtaposed the charming, hand-worked quality of babiche against rigid metal structures. The intent is a Canadian language for the international market. Appropriately, the collection, which just launched at Commissaires will debut internationally at Salone Satellite in Milan.