Lear Corp. says its new Aventino line of leather seats allows for greater customization and unique features. The material starts with a raw “hide” and uses a vertically integrated process that allows a broad range of color and surface treatments – ranging from a basket weave effect to quilting and graining techniques. Aventino leather seats bowed in the Kia Sonata sedan and Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. To demonstrate the capabilities of the material and Lear’s seating design staff, the supplier used its designers and leather finishers to create a line of clothing dubbed the Aventino collection, which was displayed recently at a fashion show at Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Despite the strong reception from the audience, Lear has no plans to market such a line commercially. Lear describes itself as the auto industry’s largest producer of leather seats. Currently about half of all new luxury cars in Europe and one third of high-end North American models have leather seating, according to Lear. It expects penetration to inch up in North America in coming years. But the biggest potential for growth is in Asia; where less than 20% of luxury models in Asia use leather seating material. Lear recently expanded its design center at its head quarters in Southfield, Michigan, and its manufacturing and sales operations in Juarez, Mexico. The Juarez plant, which performs leather finishing, cutting, perforation, embossment and special logo work, has added a showroom to its operation. The finishing process handles 3,700 –6,000 hides a day.