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Show your natural leather
- Thread starter Guppy
- Start date
RC/Jelado collab.
My process has been to use it and get it dirty or stain it, let it set, then gently remove the excess dirt/stains and put it out in the sun to tan.
The result has been the stained/dirty parts get lighter while the base color gets darker.
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Thanks. It’s spectacular!
I really like the polka-dot idea of this natural leather jacket. It’s so unique compared to what else is available on the market! I might have to attempt a similar project at some point, please keep your evolution pics coming!
Here is the evolution so far, when new it looked pale pink/peach like this
After some wear and its first noticeable stain it looked bright orange, at that point I didn’t like wearing it at all and thought it was too orange and not showing much grain or a hint of caramel, so I just kept sunbathing it until it got to a lighter orange and at that point it started to feel a bit dry so I gave it a light mink oil rub and tied it up overnight to get the grain popping and afterwards it looked kinda pale orange and a lot better overall.
More wear and sunbathing and it starts lightening up again but this time to a light tan tone and starts showing more grain, at that point it looked decent enough but I kept going.
More wear and sunbathing and I finally start to see some light caramel on the areas with more wear or stains, so I start riding more with it and letting the dirt/grime sit more so the stains set-it before wiping them off with a dry course beach towel, this is where it starts getting more character so I just keep working at it and eventually left it out in a light drizzle while sunbathing it on a chair and turning it over to get drizzle on the back as well, afterwards it looked like this
More wear and more sun and it just keeps lighting up again, a few days ago it looked like the first 2 pics I posted before, and yesterday I decided it was time for another light mink oil rub since the last one worked out pretty good and it was starting to feel a bit dry again, and now that it’s completely dry it looks like this.
At this point I think it’s ready for casual wear, to get those sleeve rolls going, and perhaps eventually I’ll work on it a bit more depending on how it evolves naturally from here.
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Thanks for the detailed discussion and pics of your tanning process. I’m especially intrigued by the use of towel to tie up the jacket to bring out the grains. It makes sense but it’s such a risky move that I’d never be able to imagine it in my mind until I’ve seen it done, with good results. I’m surprised by the lack of sleeve rolls and “dirt” (blacken from body oil probably) in the jacket’s current pic, but it does have that nice rustic look!
For your use of multiple layers of mink oil over the jacket’s evolution, have you noticed whether the jacket has shrunk? If yes, by your estimate, how many sizes has the jacket shrunk by?
I could hardly see the color differences on a such a dark tone… maybe that’s the idea, not too much color contrast. And I’m usually not a fan of epaulets, too much details, unless they serve a function (like adding stars to signal military ranking).
My logic is that the cuffs and the neck get the most scuffs and sweats, so oiling and waxing them early can protect against the environment. The chest pocket is a bit peacocking, but I’ve seen it done in two-toned jackets.
This color contrast below is a bit exaggerated, but that’s the idea. It looks pretty custom/bespoke
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The back grains are cool! Nice work. Did you do the tanning inside the house and behind the windows? Windows are known to block UVB, which I wonder if the remaining UVA in the sun is enough to tan natural leather.
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Love it. Just not a fan of unlined jackets.
No outside in the sun on a mannequin
About 8 hours a day
Have you ever considered wearing your natural leather jacket inside out, maybe at home or during the evening? Guaranteed evolution at that pace.
I’m considering it, the sleeve rolls would be obvious from the skin-oil darkening but I’m not a fan of the neck darkening.
9-years-old High Large HH that stubbornly stays in a lighter tan color. It appears to be a closet queen before it got to my hand. If you look closely at the area under the collar where it didn’t see much sunlight, it’s darker than the shoulder area. It appears that the tannin becomes lighter with age/sun, not darker. I’m still observing and sunbathing it without applying water, conditioner, or oil just yet.
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I have had that phenomenon with a natural hide from Conipel tannery. It darkened, then re-lightened in areas of sun-exposure again. I have discussed this with Ken from Aero and he hadn’t heard about this before.
The hide darkened again but at snail speed. I too didn’t condition, oil or otherwise treated it.
It still looked great, just refused to get darker beyond a certain point.
I did see your thread posted a while back about this phenomenon. I wasn’t able to find any examples online of this High Large jacket in a darker color except the following three, all of which appear to have been treated. The most obvious is the first pic with even coloring across the entirety of the jacket, which is unnatural for natural leather.
Yes, I agree.
With various forms of treatment you can achieve almost any colour you desire, as long as it’s darker than the original colour.
Hard to grasp for me to get a “natural” colour and not see it evolve but rather “de-naturalise“ it by using an artificial process. Why not get a sealed hide in the desired colour in the first place?
Not my place to judge, though.
It could be because you got it at the orange/yellow stage and I noticed from there mine started getting lighter to a desert sand or light tan tone before it turns into a light cognac tone and starts darkening again.
Only in your case since you’re doing the sun only process, it could be stuck in that getting lighter process for months.
Water alone helps a lot, other than a light drizzle, I hadn’t tried it on mine until a few days ago and not only did it darken it fast but also helped the leather developed a nice pull-up that I wasn’t really expecting.
I assume it’s the result of the absorbed oils from my previous rubs mixing with the water under the surface.
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