Deliberately made from leather.

 

Hello. This is Tomioka from cliché.

October is here, and the fall/winter deliveries are approaching their final stages. There are still hot days during the day, but with leather, knitwear, and outerwear now in stock, the shop is finally beginning to feel like fall and winter.

<cantáte>

" Horsehide Down Insulator Vest "

COL : NOIR

¥385,000 TAX IN

 

And what we are introducing this time is the Horsehide Down Insulator Vest.

Some of you may have wondered, “What is an insulator?” Simply put, it is something like insulation that prevents body heat from escaping. Down jackets and down vests are examples of this.

But cantáte would never simply make an ordinary nylon down vest, so this time, it is horsehide.

Down vests are basically made with lightness in mind, I think. Lightweight, warm, and easy to move in. It is only natural that nylon and polyester are used.

Yet we deliberately make it from leather.

And it is horsehide, no less.

The leather used here is made from European hides chrome-tanned by a tanner in Himeji. While hides from three-year-old horses are more commonly used, we select hides from two-year-old horses for this leather.

Using the hides of young horses creates a fine-grained, dense texture on the surface. Because it is chrome-tanned, it retains the characteristic tension of horsehide, yet when you wear it, it is far more supple than you might expect.

Personally, this is where I find it especially interesting.

After dyeing, we use almost none of the heavy pigments or coatings intended to make the surface look perfectly smooth and uniform.

So yes, there are scratches. There are wrinkles, too. Even within the same garment, the character of the leather differs from one area to another.

When people find a scratch on a leather product, they may wonder, “Is this a defect?” But with this leather, the opposite is true: if we hid those marks, it would defeat the purpose of choosing this leather.

The way the black comes through is beautiful, too.

The leather is buffed after oiling, so rather than looking like a flat, solid black, it develops a sheen from within when the light hits it. Including its scratches and wrinkles, this is leather whose character grows the more you wear it.

Putting down inside horsehide like this.

When you think about it, it is an extraordinarily luxurious proposition.

Against the soft, rounded volume of the down, the outer leather has structure. Bringing these two together creates a piece that is properly full, yet does not look as sporty as an ordinary down vest.

If this were nylon, I think it would have become an entirely different garment.

 

The neckline is a stand collar, and the front has a double closure with a zipper and snap buttons. The zipper uses EXCELLA.

Here too, we have simply chosen pieces that can hold their own alongside the horsehide; it is not that we wanted to make them look more luxurious than necessary. Since the leather is this strong, it is more concerning when the zipper alone ends up looking strangely lightweight.

And once you actually wear it, it is not as difficult a garment as it looks.

You can wear it over a denim set-up or with sweatshirts. With a shirt or knitwear, it looks a little more refined. When it gets colder, you can also wear a coat over it.

Personally, I think it is better not to worry too much about how you are supposed to wear it simply because it is a leather vest.

Just try wearing it over the clothes you usually wear.

That is all it needs to be.

We are used to seeing nylon down vests, but the moment nylon is replaced with horsehide, the same outfit looks a little different. I think that slight sense of incongruity is what makes this garment interesting.

If you consider only lightness, there are countless more suitable materials.

Even considering only ease of use, that is probably the right choice.

And yet, it is made of leather.

Wear it, let it accumulate scratches and develop a sheen, and little by little it becomes your own. Although it is a down vest, you can wear it much like a leather jacket.

Horsehide Down Insulator Vest.

The fall/winter deliveries are also drawing to a close.

It may finally be time to start preparing for winter.

 

cliché Tomioka