What exactly is leather?

Shiny pumps with mega-high heels, flashy gloves in loud signal colors, bikers' jackets made of super-soft nubuck, cool and classy car seats – these are just a few of the many desirable commodities that can now be made of leather. Leather is one of the last remaining natural materials in our high-tech world of Teflon, rubber and rayon. And it is also one of the most versatile.

 

But be honest – do you really know what leather is?

In the dictionary, leather is defined as "a collagenic product made from the skins of various animals which is air-permeable, relatively strong, has been used for thousands of years and is capable of absorbing 28 percent of its weight in water vapor."But is that all there is to it? No way! There is leather for shoes, leather for saddles, for furniture upholstery, for gloves, suede, thin leather as a natural material for trimmings, thick leather capable of withstanding a blow from a samurai sword, nappa leather, leather with an antique look, side leather, pigskin leather, calfskin leather, crocodile leather, snakeskin leather, even fish and ostrich leather, to name but a few. Leather can be dyed and printed, even given a different grain pattern – so you can turn a cow into a crocodile! – and treated with special lacquers to make it glossy.

Leather, like the people who wear or use it, can be anything from conservative and classical to trendy and ultra-modern. In order to obtain such a versatile end product from a simple animal skin, this high-tech, Stone-Age material has to be subjected to numerous processes. The most important of these are the tannage, the retannage and the finishing.