Other types of leather include patent leather, which has a very shiny, smooth finish, often coated with plastic; and shagreen, rough leather usually colored green. Many special types of leather are used in luxury products from gloves to pocketbooks. Belting leather is heavy and durable and can retain its shape exceptionally well. 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.
Leather is naturally versatile material, warm in winter and cool in summer. There is almost no other natural fabric has the insulation characteristics that allow both ventilation and evaporation to take place. Genuine leather provides the service and durability.
In its broadest sense, 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, but leather from other animals, such as kangaroos and ostriches, is also popular in certain applications. Different types of leather are suited to different purposes, including clothing, footwear, luggage, book binding, and drums.
The softer types of leather can be prepared in a few different ways. Full-grain leather, used in the finest leather products, 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.
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