Roche of Ages

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Fishing for Fashion... Think you're a pretty sophisticated shopper and there's nothing unique that you don't already know about? Well, sashay over to Ocean Leather at the Village on Venetian Bay and get ready to be amazed.

Jean-Charles Grenon-Andrieu, a French designer, is taking inspiration and raw material from Neptune's own store to create glamorous accessories-everything from briefcases and handbags to key chains and flasks-made from the skins of fish. You have to touch these fabulous things and listen to manager Mary Doyle talk about the process to understand how special these luxury products are and how well priced they happen to be at the moment.

The art of embellishing fish skin is French and dates back to ancient times when artisans tanned skins of white cod and Atlantic salmon to make useful home products. The practice has existed in remote French villages ever since, but recently fish skin tanning has been rediscovered by the global fashion market.

Trendy designers such as Helmut Lange, Alexander McQueen, and Philip Tracey showed fish skin accessories on the catwalk recently and are now designing fish skin boots, belts, totes and more, and selling them for upwards of $1,000. The Bottega Venita line ranges from $800 to $2,000. You can do better right here in Naples.

The Ocean Leather objects featured in the Village on Venetian Bay gallery are all by-products of the fishing industry. No fish were killed just for these skins. All the objects are beautiful and up-to-the-minute fashionable, but there's another reason to browse the gallery. You can learn a lot about obscure fish.

For example, there's the spotted wolf fish that lives off the coast of Iceland and has no scales. This fish inhabits water so deep, it never sees the sun. Handbags made from this fish skin are silky smooth. By contrast, the Nile perch lives close to the surface of the water in Lake Victoria and is heavily scaled. Objects made from its skin have a lot of texture.

Jean-Charles Grenon-Andrieu is from a second-generation fisher-family and has been working with skins for many years. He opened his Naples shop two years ago and works with designers in France, Canada and Asia to stock his unusual fashion aquarium. In the store you'll find neck collars, lipstick cases, earrings and pendants, eyeglass holders, wallets, date books, and, of course, those elegant handbags in a full range of sizes and shapes.

Prices at Ocean Leather start at about $10 for a key chain and escalate up to $400 for a large handbag. Nearly all the bags are dyed to bright designer hues. You'll need at least three or four to match your various outfits. And the little evening bags are in a class all by themselves. Items for men include flasks, business card holders, and handsome briefcases. Cuff links are made from stingray skin. You need to go casting for Ocean Leather.

Roche Bobois

Parkshore Centre

3601 Tamiami Trail, Naples

435-1602

Four Winds Gallery

3401 13th Avenue South, Naples

263-7555

Ocean Leather

The Village on Venetian Bay

4320 Gulfshore Boulevard, Naples

263-9808