How to distinguish a genuine leather jacket from an artificial one. How to distinguish leather from leatherette? How to check leather clothes for naturalness

Genuine leather products are considered classics in the world modern fashion, due to which they are very often faked. Unscrupulous sellers profit from the ignorance of buyers and sometimes pass off cheap eco-leather as natural. How not to make a mistake when buying a leather product? How to distinguish leatherette from natural material? You will find answers to these and many other questions in our article.

Varieties of genuine leather

There are several types of genuine leather. These include:

• Shevro - genuine chrome leather, made exclusively from goat or sheep skins, has a coarse-grained structure, increased softness and elasticity;
• Shagreen leather - natural vegetable tanned leather, made from sheep, donkey, horse and goat skins;
• Lacquer - genuine leather, which has a glossy lacquer coating, which gives the product additional strength and an unusual appearance;
• Suede - natural leather made from the skins of deer, elk, cattle.

there is patent leather, suede, shagreen and chevro

Types of eco-leather

Eco-leather is new type a leather substitute that has nothing to do with natural material, although many dishonest sellers claim the opposite. There are several basic types of ecological leather. These include:

• Vinyl - artificial material, made with the use of polyvinyl chloride, which gives the product additional strength, and to soften the material and elasticity, various plasticizers are usually added to the composition of vinyl;
• Dermantin is an artificial material with increased abrasion resistance, thermal resistance, and is mainly used for the manufacture of car covers.

eco-leather can be represented by dermantin and vinyl

Methods for determining genuine leather

If you want to determine what material is in front of you - natural or not, then it is important to remember the following:

• the price of a leather product will never be too low, so this is the first factor that should alert you at the time of purchase;
• the presence of a leather label, which has the appearance of a reduced copy of the skin of the animal from which the genuine leather was made;
• natural material quickly becomes warm after you hold it in your hands, eco-leather, on the contrary, remains cold;
• the edge of genuine leather is thick, rough and uniform, while that of leatherette has several layers, one of which includes matter;
• if you bend the leather product, then there will be no cracks on the natural material;
• pay attention to the lining if it is made of cheap synthetic fabric, then in front of you is definitely eco-leather or leatherette, the manufacturers of which very often save;
• try to bend the material, if it has changed its color at the bend, then you have artificial leather in front of you;
• you can also determine the naturalness of the product using an ordinary lighter, for this it is enough to bring the flame to the material: genuine leather will remain unharmed, and artificial leather will begin to melt;
• apply a little water to the product, if the skin is natural, then it will darken in the place of accumulation of moisture, the eco-leather will remain dry, as it has water-repellent effects;
• the elasticity of natural material is much higher than that of artificial;
• usually genuine leather has a distinct specific smell that cannot be confused with anything else, and eco-leather smells like chemistry;
• products made from natural materials have a calm, discreet shade, and eco-leather is very bright and colorful.

artificial leather looks different from natural

How to check leather clothes for naturalness?

If you decide to purchase any leather clothes, but doubt its naturalness, you can try the old proven methods. Each of which we will consider on the example of a specific wardrobe item.

Shoes

Before the purchase leather shoes it is necessary to determine its naturalness. It is not recommended to wear shoes made of eco-leather, as the foot will not breathe and sweat a lot. Genuine leather, on the contrary, will not allow your leg to sweat, get wet or freeze. Wearing boots or boots made of genuine leather, you will feel incredible softness and elasticity, the product will adapt to the shape of your foot. Eco-leather cannot do this. Replacement shoes are usually very stiff, rough, and have a strong chemical smell. You can also look at the cut of the product, if you see a suede layer, it means that you have a natural material in front of you.

Jacket

With outerwear, everything is much more complicated, since in most cases all the edges of the product are sealed, and it remains only by external signs to determine the naturalness of the material from which it is made. Check the product for elasticity, it should stretch well and fit comfortably to the body. The edges of genuine leather can be bent, and due to the fact that leatherette has increased rigidity, it is usually soldered with a special composition (this applies to outerwear). Buy a jacket only in trusted stores, never trust the markets. Also pay attention to the smell, if there is a strong chemical aroma, then you have a fake.

Gloves

Leather gloves are usually very soft and elastic. If the product is made of genuine leather, then it should fit your hand. Gloves made of eco-leather or leatherette are quite hard, the hand will not be comfortable in them. Also pay attention to the label, because very often special tags are hung on small leather goods in the form of the skin of the animal from which it is made.

Bag

Determining the naturalness of a leather bag is somewhat easier than with other products. Leather bags are always labeled with labels made from the same material. If it is not, then this should alert you. Pay attention to the cuts, if you see a layer of suede, then you should not worry, this is a natural material. If a fabric layer is visible, this may mean that you have leatherette in front of you. Sometimes it happens that the seams of the product are completely sealed, in which case you will have to evaluate the external data of the bag. Drop a little water on its surface, if the skin darkens, then it is natural, if the water remains on the surface, it is eco-leather or leatherette.

Distinguish genuine leather from artificial is quite simple. Follow all the above rules, never rush to buy this or that product, choose calmly, do not succumb to the persuasion of the seller.

10 WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATE GENUINE LEATHER FROM LEATHER SUBSTITUTE.

When choosing a leather jacket, the question often arises, how to distinguish genuine leather from artificial? It is in this article that you will find the answer and you can easily choose a product made of genuine leather.

1. Take some water and apply it on your skin. Real leather absorbs moisture, but it rolls off leatherette and the surface remains dry. On the skin, a drop of water forms a wet mark, which dries up after a while, if the product is of high quality, then white marks should not remain after the water.
2. If you bring a lighter with a flame to the product and hold it, then the skin should remain in as before. Leatherette melts even at the slightest contact with the flame. The store will not allow you to carry out this type of check, but not because they doubt the quality of the leather being sold, but only because it is not required by fire safety regulations.
3. You should hold the thing in your hands. Real leather will be warm to the touch, while faux leather will be cold, and your hands will sweat a little. This is due to the fact that natural leather has a much higher thermal conductivity than artificial leather, due to which it is warmer. In addition, real leather breathes, so your hands do not sweat.
4. Smell the thing. The skin has a smell, but it should not be strong. If the processing of the product was done correctly, then you should feel a slight aroma, characteristic of the smell of genuine leather. But leather shavings have also been added to leatherette to simulate the smell, so it will be more difficult to identify the product using one such method.
5. Carefully inspect the seams, there should not be threads peeking out of them, there should also be no textile backing. If you notice something suspicious, then it is better to refrain from buying. A leatherette product is worn much less than leather.
6. Do not buy leather items in the market or in stores that have recently opened, trust salons with a positive reputation that have been selling products for more than a month.
7. Bend the product until wrinkles appear, then straighten it. On natural leather, the creases should disappear, while on artificial leather they will remain for a while or even forever. This is one of useful properties real leather, which explains the high price of such products. Best of all, this method works on hard things.
8. You can see the sign on the tag. Many products have a tag from the manufacturer, which indicates the material from which the item is made. Genuine leather is marked with a small stylized sign depicting a skin, and artificial leather is marked with a rhombus. But such tags are not found on all things.
9.A certificate must be attached to any leather product, so you can ask the seller for it and check the authenticity of the product.
10. You will not need the suggested advice if you make a purchase in the stores of the KERIMOFF trading network. Chain of stores

Artificial leather (abbreviated name iskozha, colloquial: leatherette, leatherette) is a polymeric material (polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride) that is used instead of genuine leather for the production of shoes, clothing, accessories, straps for wrist watch, haberdashery and technical products.

Following our tips, you will be able to distinguish faux leather from real leather:

In order not to fall for the trick, put your hand, the artificial leather will remain cold, and the real leather will immediately warm up.

Try to find the raw edge of the leather item and examine it carefully. Genuine leather should not exfoliate. On the cut of the leatherette, you can see the film top coating, and on the bottom layer there is a fabric with which this coating is glued.

You can see how water affects the skin. To do this, you need to drop a drop of water on the skin being examined. If it absorbs moisture and darkens, then this is genuine leather, but synthetics will not change their appearance.

A leather sample is always included with a quality product.

Feel the product - artificial leather is much thinner than real leather.

We think that you heard that earlier, in the 90s, in order to distinguish the skin from the skin surrogate, it was checked with fire. In our time, this method has lost its relevance. Hi tech has reached the production of leather, and manufacturers have begun to add special components, thanks to which artificial leather can char as well as natural.

Today, it is useless to sniff a wallet, a glove or a leather watch strap, because any substitute is now added with a flavor that mimics the smell of leather.

If they sell you a wallet made of supposedly crocodile skin, but not at a “crocodile” price, do not rush to leave the boutique. The presence of embossing does not mean that it is ordinary artificial leather. It can be a wallet made of natural goat skin, which is simply embossed “under the reptile”.

There are more effective methods distinguish genuine leather from leather substitute. For example, the most easy way to find out what shoes are made of, it is to study the label with graphic images, they say what material the upper layer, sole and sole of the shoe is made of. If there are leather icons on the sticker, repeating the outlines of the skin pattern, then the shoes are leather. And if there is a rhombus in one of the rows of the table, then this element of the shoe is made of synthetic materials.

However, even if there are all labels and tags, this cannot be guaranteed to indicate that this is genuine leather. Of course, the counterfeit also has a label and a tag, copying the attributes of real leather. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the cut of the skin, on which you can see the entire structure of the product. If you find protruding threads or fabric in the basis of the material, then this thing is made of artificial leather.

Usually, all cuts in branded items are hidden inside, but you can try to find an open cut, because lately manufacturers have been trying to prove the naturalness of their products, leaving the opportunity to see the thing from the inside. In real leather, the cut edges look and feel unfinished, as if raw. A significant difference between genuine leather and leatherette is the pores on its surface. As a rule, the pores of artificial leather are applied as if in a cyclic pattern and made in a pattern.

Today, eco-leather is becoming more and more popular. Manufacturers claim that this is more natural leather than artificial, because it breathes.

But where can naturalness come from if polyurethane is applied to the fabric base. But, nevertheless, eco-leather has good wear resistance and frost resistance. But the characteristics of the material is a topic for another conversation.

Recently, natural leather has begun to appear massively, which is produced using the usual processing of leather waste, it is also called press leather. It contains such components as scraps, shreds, leather dust and other waste.

For the coupling of these elements, synthetic binder fibers are added, these are polyethylene, and polyamide, and polyester. Synthetic resins are also added to the composition. In short, solid chemistry. It seems to be pressed leather and leather in composition, but right in the hands it can turn into worthless dust. Such shoes can deteriorate on the third day of careful use in wet weather, cracks will immediately begin to appear on them. However, do not rush to rejoice and wear such shoes only in dry weather, because in half a month they will look like they were worn for six months.

To determine whether the leather on the boots is natural or processed pressed, you should bend the boot at the toe or press the top of its toe with your finger. If small wrinkles form when pressed, and after the material is returned to its original state, they disappear, this indicates that the leather is genuine.

Many tourists, coming to Florence, ask themselves the question “where to buy leather in Florence?”. Leather craftsmanship has always flourished in the city and has been known far beyond the borders of Italy for centuries. Today you will find a large number of shops and markets with leather products. So where to buy a leather bag or leather jacket in Florence? Of course, the quality of branded products differs from leather goods sold in the markets, but you choose depending on your preferences:

If you prefer quality and do not look at the price, then you should go to the famous boutiques in Via Tornabuoni, Via Strozzi or Via Roma, located in the very center of the city, near the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica. Here you will find original leather goods from Italian designers, which have always been considered as indicators of the highest class.

If you want to save money, then visit the San Lorenzo Market or the Porcellino Market. The goods sold in the markets are monotonous, the quality is not always up to par, but the prices will please you, and it is customary to bargain here.

If you want to find the best price / quality ratio, you should visit the shops of local manufacturers selling their brands.

-If you wish not to miscalculate the quality and be sure of the Italian origin of the goods, we advise you to visit the leather factory, where you can see what kind of leather and how leather bags and leather accessories are sewn.

But it is important not only the quality of tailoring and finishing of a leather bag or jacket, but also what kind of leather the product is made of: natural or artificial. Consider a few main features by which you can distinguish genuine leather from artificial:

1. Smell. Genuine leather has a natural, slightly noticeable smell, while artificial leather smells synthetic materials. This smell is felt immediately.

2. Warm. Hold the product in your hand. If it warms up and retains your warmth for a while, then it is genuine leather. Faux leather does not transmit or retain heat.

3. In appearance. Genuine leather has a natural unique pattern, on artificial leather the pattern is repeated. However, here it is easy to confuse with printed leather, which has a monotonous pattern.

4. To the touch. Genuine leather is soft and supple, it has a soft, uniform texture and, when pressed and stretched, quickly regains its shape. At the bending points, genuine leather does not change its color, while creases remain on artificial leather. The reverse surface of natural leather is velvety and somewhat reminiscent of suede.

5. Slice. If there are open sections on a leather product, then the section of genuine leather can be identified by its fibrous structure, while the section of artificial leather has a smooth surface.

6. Material sample. If a product is accompanied by a sample of the material from which it is made, then a simple rhombus denotes a leather substitute, and a figured rhombus denotes genuine leather. However, here manufacturers can deceive you.

7. Opposition to the flame. Theoretically, when fire is brought to natural leather, it does not ignite, but begins to gradually shrink and emit a smell similar to the smell of smoked chicken. However, due to the fact that leather products are treated with an anil coating, genuine leather can catch fire. The artificial skin flashes when exposed to a flame and begins to behave like plastic bottle, sintering and producing a pungent odor and often black smoke. But be careful with such experiments so as not to spoil your leather product, as even real leather is deformed when exposed to fire for a long time.

8. Water. When water gets on natural leather, it is absorbed and a small dark spot remains on the skin until the moisture completely disappears from the surface of the skin. Faux leather does not absorb moisture. This method is more suitable when choosing a leather jacket.

So, following these simple tips, you can easily distinguish genuine leather from artificial. However, remember that each leather product has its own characteristics depending on the type of leather, its dyeing and processing, so do not get carried away with experiments, especially those that can damage the leather product, or entrust this matter to professionals. Happy shopping!

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Some unscrupulous sellers often pass off artificial leather as natural material, so everyone who wants to buy a leather product should know how to identify genuine leather.

How to determine: skin or not

One of the most common methods for identifying leatherette is the evaluation of the material by smell. Genuine leather has a specific smell - quite pleasant and not sharp. However, this method has practically lost its relevance, since manufacturers add particles of genuine leather to the composition of the product, which interrupts the aroma of leatherette. "Leather" products are also heavily processed with synthetic fragrances that give them the smell of genuine leather.

trial by fire

There is another way by which you can make sure that the thing is real. To do this, set fire to a small piece of skin and look at the reaction of the material. The artificial skin will begin to melt, while the real one will not react in any way to such a test. In addition, a characteristic chemical smell will indicate an unnatural material. You can conduct an experiment at home by taking the label of a bag or jacket to check.

Pay attention to the cut of the material

You can also look at the cross section of the product. If you see villi on the cut, it means that the thing is sewn from natural material. The presence of threads and delamination of the cut indicates fake skin. The problem is that the cuts are often sewn up with the edges inward. You can drop a small amount of water on the surface of a shoe or bag to detect a fake. Real leather absorbs moisture, water will spread over the leatherette.

General assessment of the thing

Grade appearance products will also allow you to draw some conclusions about the material used. The outer side of genuine leather does not contain creases and cracks. In addition, the present material has such property as plasticity. You can slightly stretch the edges of the product, after which they should return to their original position. With a leatherette thing, this will not happen. It is also recommended to compare the material of the label and the product itself, such as shoes. Manufacturers often attach real leather tags to leatherette items.