Faux leather care

Every bag in this catalog is PU faux leather: a polyurethane coating bonded to a fabric backing and embossed with a pattern. It is not leather and we do not call it leather anywhere on this site, which is also what the federal guides on leather products ask of anyone selling a material that looks like hide and is not.

Knowing what the material is tells you how to look after it, because almost everything written about leather care is wrong for this one.

What works

A damp cloth and a dry pass afterwards. The coating is not porous the way hide is, so a spill sits on the surface for a moment rather than soaking in, and wiping it off within a minute usually leaves nothing behind. For the inside, turn the lining out where you can and shake it.

Store the bag with something in it. A faux leather panel creases where it folds, and a crease in a coating is a crack waiting to start. A rolled towel or the pouch from the same set keeps the shape between uses better than an empty bag on a hook does.

What does not

Leather conditioner and saddle soap do nothing here: there is no hide to feed. Solvent lifts the coating and leaves a dull patch that does not come back: acetone, nail polish remover and alcohol wipes all do it. Heat is the other one: a bag left on a radiator or in a car in summer will stiffen and the coating will start to lift along the seams.

Where it wears first

The corners and the bottom edge, because that is what meets the floor and the desk, and the fold where a strap doubles over its fitting. On a dark panel the first sign is a lighter gray line along the edge; on a pale one it is a gray mark at the corner. Neither can be polished out, which is the honest reason to take a dark panel if the bag is going to work five days a week.

The hardware outlasts the panel on these bags. Zips and clasps are metal and keep working after the corner has gone, which is worth knowing if you are deciding whether to replace a bag or keep it for weekends.

Dye transfer

The one mark that surprises people. New dark denim gives up dye onto a pale panel, and a beige or white bag carried against jeans picks up a gray-blue tint along the side that touches. It is not damage to the bag and it comes off with a damp cloth if you catch it early; left for a season it stays.

The numbers here are the ones the studio behind Soperwillton took off the pieces themselves, not a rule of thumb copied from elsewhere.