What to look out for when choosing leather bags
Leather is always in fashion, but you know what leather to choose if you want to buy or make a gift, accessories, leather bags – tsantes – or even clothes? See the skin types available so you can decide what to get…
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Polished CalfSkin Leather
Polished Calf Skin is, as the name implies, polished calf skin. This leather is very soft, has great resistance to time and stains and is of very good quality. These excellent properties make Polished Calf Skin ideal for all bags that need refined quality, high water and daily stain resistance, and luxurious texture.
Due to its excellent quality and excellent durability, Polished Calf Skin is the first choice in the manufacture of professional products, while it is also used for both men’s and women’s leather bags due to its quality and luxury.
Due to its treatment it cleans very easily even from stains, but beware this does not mean that you should not clean it as soon as possible as soon as you find that it is dirty. The leather chosen to create the Polished Calf Skin Leather must be literally flawless.
This is because the only procedure in which a skin is selected for Polished Calf Skin Leather is sanding and biological dyeing, with the result that any skin defect is visible and therefore makes the skin unsuitable for this use.
Ruga leather
Ruga leather is the latest fad in leather bags. It is of excellent quality leather, is extremely smooth and has an impressive appearance and uniquely soft texture. It is very similar to Napa leather, but it is softer and just as luxurious.
It adopts the properties of polished leather in terms of durability, is very soft, has great resistance to time and stains. Ruga leather is of very good quality and impresses anyone looking for a bag “full” of luxury and sophisticated texture.
Sauvage Leather
Sauvage leather is also “first” leather and top quality leather. However, it has undergone a special paint treatment, as a result of which it contains two different shades of the same colour. Special paint treatment includes two types of paints. The first time the dark shade of colour penetrates deep into the skin. The second time, a lighter shade of the same colour enters.
This process adds “depth” and “character” to the Sauvage skin and produces a two-tone – ripple – colour flicker as in marble. Sauvage leather is highly resistant to dirt and stains and is often preferred because it is very soft and durable at the same time. It is also one of the most expensive leathers and not all leathers are suitable for producing Sauvage leather. Sauvage leather is very similar in texture to Suede leather.
Saffiano leather
Saffiano leather was first created in Italy, the homeland of leather. In essence, it is not a type of skin but a way of treating the skin. It was created by Mario Prada and first appeared in Prada in 1913.
Although it was created a century ago, Saffiano leather did not make a dynamic appearance in the fashion industry until recently. That is why it is considered a “new” skin in the industry. Saffiano “leather” has a textured texture, great durability and dirt while it is very elegant leather. The embossed texture is due to a machine that imprints these characteristic lines on the skin (stamping method).
Finally, its treatment is completed by coating a layer of wax. As a result, Saffiano’s skin is highly resistant to scratches, lasts a long time, repels water, and is very easy to clean. Its processing results in deep and intense colours that, in combination with the organic dye, highlight and create bags with very bright and vibrant colours.
However, because it is not a leather but a way of processing, special care is needed because a bag made by Saffiano can be made of calf but also of other skins of lower quality, such as the skin of a pig or a lamb.
Unfortunately, because this embossed style is so easy to copy, we find it not only in lower quality leathers but also in technoderm or even nylon. In addition, the paint may not be organic, but it may be plain paint and as mentioned all to be copied. So you need to be very careful to make sure that the product you are going to buy is genuine leather and not technoderm or plastic.
The authentic Italian Saffiano leather is an excellent quality calfskin, which has a biological dye and adopts the properties of this leather, with the end result being a refined and excellent quality leather product. Many companies including Michael Kors, 4Bag, DKNY and LongChamp use Saffiano leather for their women bags – γυναικείες επώνυμες τσάντες.
Nappa skin
The term Nappa is used to denote the skin that comes from the outer and thinner layer of the skin. It is considered the best quality leather. Just be careful, because this term is used very often, misleadingly in the industry.
This is because it is not the word Nappa that defines skin quality, but since Nappa leather comes from Top Grain Leather which is considered the best and most expensive quality, then the Nappa leather produced is therefore the best quality.
Good Nappa leather has a very soft feel and extremely smooth texture. One of its common uses is to cover the interior of luxury cars.
Nubuck leather
Nubuck leather is similar to Suede. The difference is that while Suede leather is made on the inside of the leather, Nubuck leather is made on the outside of the leather, with the same tanning process to give it a velvety texture like Suede.
It is very – very soft. It is also more expensive, thicker and more durable than Suede. It is easily scratched, and if water falls on it, it temporarily darkens the skin until it dries, at which point it returns completely.
It is most often used in furniture upholstery. A Nubuck leather sofa is something you will often come across in furniture stores.
Suede leather
Suede leather comes from the inside of the leather after separating the layers of leather in order to make leather items. Suede is a very thin and soft leather that is commonly used to make fashion items and leather accessories.
It comes after skin tightening in order to create the feeling of velvety texture. It is flexible and durable with a refined texture. Although generally slightly cheaper than Nappa leather, it is not considered inferior.
On the contrary, Suede leather is the most suitable for creating designs on it and many times the result of a bag made of Suede leather is amazing! While it has great durability in terms of skin quality, it is also quite absorbent. It absorbs moisture to a greater extent but because of this, it “breathes” better.
Faux Leather
If you are interested in getting a real leather bag, you should avoid anything that has the inscription Faux Leather or the so-called leatherette. Faux Leather as well as leatherette is not leather, it is plastic in imitation leather. It is essentially a synthetic-artificial “leather” which is a polymer plastic “common” PVC.
The technology has advanced so much that many times even experienced craftsmen and leather manufacturers cannot safely distinguish a Faux leather from a real one. Of course this happens when the product is unused. Because from the very first months of use, the Faux Leather will show its true origin.
It has nothing to do with the quality of the original leather bag with the quality of a leatherette or Faux leather and very soon a product made of this kind of “leather” will lose all vitality, crumple and remind nothing of the beautiful bag you had in the beginning.