How To Choose A Beautiful Leather Jacket

Shopping for a leather jacket is as simple as a click of a button or a swipe of a credit card. However, finding a quality leather jacket made from high-grade material is challenging, especially if you don’t know what to look for.

When buying a leather jacket, there are several things that distinguish a real leather jacket from a fake one. 

Quality Leather 

Finding a premium leather jacket starts with the material. The quality of the grain is the best way to determine the quality of the leather. 

Leather has four grades of grain or quality. The grain quality simply means how tight the collagen bundles are. For example, the tighter the collagen bundles, the higher the quality is.

There are four basic types of grain quality in leather.

• Full-grain – Full-grain is the highest quality of leather and has a smooth, luxurious surface with few flaws.
• Top-grain – Top-grain leather is slightly thinner than full-grain leather as a layer was stripped away by sanding. However, the material is still durable.
• Genuine leather –  Genuine leather does not make it authentic and the name can be misleading. It does not mean the leather itself is genuine. Genuine leather is the “leftovers” or the “scraps”. Suede is a good example of genuine leather. 
• Corrective- or bonded-grain – This type of leather grain is the lowest of quality and is the lowest quality of leather.

The quality of leather can be determined by looking and feeling the material. If it looks and feels cheap, the chances are it is.

What is Italian Leather?

Simply put, Italian leather is leather that is made in Italy. Also, the method in which the leather is made makes it Italian leather. For example, many tanneries in Italy, or a place where animal hide is tanned, use a method called vegetable tanning.

This technique uses natural ingredients, such as organic vegetable oils, and ingredients found from plants, trees, and fruits to tan or create leather.

What is Pleather?

Pleather or faux leather is a textile that mimics leather, but is not actually made from animal material. Pleather is made of synthetic materials such as plastic.

To differentiate pleather from leather, simply look at and feel the material. Pleather is typically more flimsy as compared to leather which is thicker because it’s made from real animal hide.

Whether you’re looking to buy a smart women’s motorcycle jacket or a slick men’s leather jacket, you can find a quality leather jacket in any category for a reasonable price. Just ensure you investigate the grain quality first.