It is well said that leather never ages. It adds to its quality with time.
Leather fabric is weather friendly, gives comfort in both the weather, hot
as well as cold. It is firm, soft and elastic. It retains to the original
shape when stretched and absorbs water vapour without losing the dryness.
Leather fabric carries natural textures. Some has scars where as others
show a grainy surface. Few of them have velvety appearance and some marbled
or creased look. Many of them are given textures artificially, such as
embossed leather.
Different types of leather fabric textures are described below :
- Aniline Leather - It is
the most natural and beautiful form of leather. It shows the healed
scars and varying natural textures.
- Nubuck Leather - It is
actually aniline leather but with a brushed and polished look. It has a
velvet like texture with lush appearance.
- Suede Leather - It is the
finish applied to leather by buffing the underside of the hide heavily
and creating velvet like nap.
- Corrected Leather - It
has a grain layer, which is buffed or sanded to minimise imperfections.
Sometimes an artificial grain is also applied to give an uniform look.
It is fuzzy on one side and smooth on the other.
- Crust Leather - It is a
semi-finished leather. The leather is tanned with vegetable, chrome or
the combination of both. It is tanned to make it nonperishable.
- PU Coated Leather - It
is made from the inner splits of the hide and is finished with a
polyurethane coating. The coating is also sometimes embossed with a
design to give the leather the widest variety of textures.
- Distressed Leather -
It is an aniline dyed leather showing the signs of wear and natural
aging that have been artificially created.
- Embossed Leather -
Similar to corrected leather. It is stamped under high pressure in a
press to make unique designs. It is sometimes also made to imitate full
grain characteristics.
- Sauvage Leather - It is a top
grain, semi-aniline leather with two-tone effect adding depth and
character, producing a marbled or creased appearance.
- Split Leather - It is the
lower or the inner (flesh) side of a hide, which is split away from the
upper, or the grain layer. It is buffed to make the surface smooth. A
coating of urethane is applied to make it more tough and uniform.
