For Handbag Sinners: What are the different types of leather used for Handbags?

Although the sun is shining this month sees the autumn/winter handbag collections ready for delivery into store. And with so many rich, soft leather handbags to choose from just what are the different types of leather used for handbags?

Leather is any type of tanned animal hide. Different types of leather are characterized by both the type of animal skin used and the tanning and manufacturing methods employed. The most common types of leather are made from cow hide, which is coloured by tanning.

Softer types of leather are used for Handbags. Full-grain leather, used in the finest leather bags, is not altered past removing the hair and tanning the hide. Therefore, it requires raw materials of excellent quality. Top-grain leather is sanded on one side and given an artificial grain in order to hide imperfections in the raw material. The other side of this type of leather is fuzzy. Suede is fuzzy on both sides, as it is cut from the inside of an animal hide.Brain-tanned leather or buckskin, made with animal brains or other emulsified oils, is washable and significantly softer than any of the above varieties, but it is also the rarest, as it is costly and time-consuming to produce.

Other types of leather include patent leather, which has a very shiny, smooth finish, often coated with plastic; and shagreen, a rough leather usually colored green. Napa leather is known for its softness, as is slunk, made from the hide of a calf fetus. Vachetta leather is typically used as a trim on handbags.

Cow leathers used for handbags are often given an embossed finish to create the look of a skin from an expensive or endangered species, such as ostrich, crocodile or snakeskin.