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How to dress like a gentleman- A guide on the history of leather clothing for the gentleman
LEATHER CLOTHING
HISTORY
The genus homo sapiens has been using animal skins as clothing for half a million years. This is
adduced by dating flints used to scrape the flesh off the skins of animals that had been killed for
food. It will be no surprise to students of the Bible, which records how Adam and Eve wore “coats of
skins” in the Garden of Eden.
Since skins rot, primeval tailors would have to have been more or less constantly engaged in
scraping until they could devise ways to preserve them. The simplest method was to stretch the skin
out to dry in the sun until stiff and hard. By a stroke of genius, or more likely by accident, It was
discovered that rubbing animal brains into the dried skin (and consequently treating it with a fatty
oil) made it soft enough to wear.
The next monumental advance was to soak the skin in tannin, tannic acid extracted from vegetable
matter: in other words, to invent tanning. Tanning renders the skin immune to decay and shrinkage.
The ancient Britons used oak bark for their tanning, and over the centuries very many other
materials with special tanning properties were discovered; these ranged from chestnut wood to the
bark of hemlock and mimosa.
TANNING
The gentleman who takes a discreet pleasure in sensing that leather brings out the noble savage in
him might be advised to hasten thorough this section, or skip it entirely. There is nothing ‘natural’
about the many industrial procedures required to put that soft, firm ‘skin’ on one’s back.
Raw skins are first of all ‘cured’ by salting, then they are soaked, and the flesh and hair is removed.
This process alone can take more than a month. Most skins are next treated with enzymes to render
them soft and flexible and to smooth the surface. This is called ‘bating’. The skins can now be
tanned.
Chrome-tanning and vegetable-tanning are the two principal tanning processes, with innumerable
variations of each.
Chrome-tanning is quick and creates the ‘stretcha-bility’ required of gloves, clothing and shoe
uppers.
The skins are first soaked in an acid solution, then tumbled in a revolving drum filled with a solution
of chromium-sulphate, or with a wide variety of other chemical compounds, each one able to impart
a special characteristic.
Vegetable tanning is a slow process of weeks or months of pickling in vats; it results in firmer, more
water-resistant leathers required for shoe soles, luggage, belts and the like. The two processes are
often combined to produce leathers with a mix of advantages.
DYEING
After tanning, the leather ‘stock’ undergoes a variety of treatments according to its end use.
Chrome-tanned leather for shoe uppers for instance, is shaved to a desired thickness and the
rolled in an emulsion of greasy oils. Vegetable-tanned leather for shoe soles is bleached, infused
with a witch’s brew of oils , Epsom salts, glucose and other substances, then lubricated with a hot,
soapy emulsion and run through a rolling machine.
Dyeing is done in two principal ways. In high-quality aniline dyeing, the colours are allowed to seep
deeply into the leather. In pigment dyeing, the leather is sprayed and a colour residue is retained
on the surface to hide blemishes. A third alternative, semi-aniline dyeing, combines the two methods.
After dyeing, heavy leathers are coated with a finishing compound. Light leathers are sanded and
buffed to remove surface imperfections. Buffing the reverse, flesh side raises the nap to create
suede. To achieve a smooth surface, most light leather is waxed or treated with resins. Repeated
coats of thick varnish give patent leather its high gloss.
Both of the basic forms of finished leather ,‘grain’ and suede, can be made shower-proof.
The bulk of leather clothing in Britain has undergone a tanning procedure known as ‘semi-chrome’,
which produces a firm finish. ‘Full-chrome’ leather is softer and sometimes known as ‘Nappa’. Suede
clothing may be semi-chrome or full-chrome.
HISTORY
The genus homo sapiens has been using animal skins as clothing for half a million years. This is
adduced by dating flints used to scrape the flesh off the skins of animals that had been killed for
food. It will be no surprise to students of the Bible, which records how Adam and Eve wore “coats of
skins” in the Garden of Eden.
Since skins rot, primeval tailors would have to have been more or less constantly engaged in
scraping until they could devise ways to preserve them. The simplest method was to stretch the skin
out to dry in the sun until stiff and hard. By a stroke of genius, or more likely by accident, It was
discovered that rubbing animal brains into the dried skin (and consequently treating it with a fatty
oil) made it soft enough to wear.
The next monumental advance was to soak the skin in tannin, tannic acid extracted from vegetable
matter: in other words, to invent tanning. Tanning renders the skin immune to decay and shrinkage.
The ancient Britons used oak bark for their tanning, and over the centuries very many other
materials with special tanning properties were discovered; these ranged from chestnut wood to the
bark of hemlock and mimosa.
TANNING
The gentleman who takes a discreet pleasure in sensing that leather brings out the noble savage in
him might be advised to hasten thorough this section, or skip it entirely. There is nothing ‘natural’
about the many industrial procedures required to put that soft, firm ‘skin’ on one’s back.
Raw skins are first of all ‘cured’ by salting, then they are soaked, and the flesh and hair is removed.
This process alone can take more than a month. Most skins are next treated with enzymes to render
them soft and flexible and to smooth the surface. This is called ‘bating’. The skins can now be
tanned.
Chrome-tanning and vegetable-tanning are the two principal tanning processes, with innumerable
variations of each.
Chrome-tanning is quick and creates the ‘stretcha-bility’ required of gloves, clothing and shoe
uppers.
The skins are first soaked in an acid solution, then tumbled in a revolving drum filled with a solution
of chromium-sulphate, or with a wide variety of other chemical compounds, each one able to impart
a special characteristic.
Vegetable tanning is a slow process of weeks or months of pickling in vats; it results in firmer, more
water-resistant leathers required for shoe soles, luggage, belts and the like. The two processes are
often combined to produce leathers with a mix of advantages.
DYEING
After tanning, the leather ‘stock’ undergoes a variety of treatments according to its end use.
Chrome-tanned leather for shoe uppers for instance, is shaved to a desired thickness and the
rolled in an emulsion of greasy oils. Vegetable-tanned leather for shoe soles is bleached, infused
with a witch’s brew of oils , Epsom salts, glucose and other substances, then lubricated with a hot,
soapy emulsion and run through a rolling machine.
Dyeing is done in two principal ways. In high-quality aniline dyeing, the colours are allowed to seep
deeply into the leather. In pigment dyeing, the leather is sprayed and a colour residue is retained
on the surface to hide blemishes. A third alternative, semi-aniline dyeing, combines the two methods.
After dyeing, heavy leathers are coated with a finishing compound. Light leathers are sanded and
buffed to remove surface imperfections. Buffing the reverse, flesh side raises the nap to create
suede. To achieve a smooth surface, most light leather is waxed or treated with resins. Repeated
coats of thick varnish give patent leather its high gloss.
Both of the basic forms of finished leather ,‘grain’ and suede, can be made shower-proof.
The bulk of leather clothing in Britain has undergone a tanning procedure known as ‘semi-chrome’,
which produces a firm finish. ‘Full-chrome’ leather is softer and sometimes known as ‘Nappa’. Suede
clothing may be semi-chrome or full-chrome.
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