This is a recent project for a client who travels a lot. It needed to be light enough to be worn in many climates, and packable without adding too much weight. The client brought to me a jacket he'd purchased several years ago, from a well know European designer. It was incredibly light weight and also very worn out. In fact, it was actually pleather! (for lack of a better term)
He'd believed it to be leather at the time he purchased it and it did have an amazing hand to it. It could have easily pass as leather when it was new, except for the weight. Really, it was so good only someone who really versed in leather would be able to tell. Plus the workmanship in it was very high, quite odd to put that work into a synthetic...
But, what had happened over 4 years of wear was inevitable with a petrol product. The jacket's finish had virtually disintegrated everywhere there was friction, contact with the skin or the even the slightest perspiration! The edges, the cuffs, full across the back, the collar, and the underarm area- to the elbow!
He wanted the jacket re-created as closely as possible, in real leather. keeping it as light as possible and seamless along the length like the original. (This is often impossible since the very light skins tend to be very small and just don't allow for the length required in a men's jacket.) It worked out perfectly that the one skin that usually runs larger suited this project to a T). There were also fit adjustments needed, to have a really well fitting jacket.
This is the finished jacket:
The new jacket - just a little heavier than the original, has minimal inner construction, to keep the weight down. And, it can comfortably go from Lima to London without adding too much extra to the carry on.
