— Fine-Grain Horsehide —
Horsehide made from European raw hides and chrome-tanned by a tannery in Himeji. After dyeing, it receives almost no pigment or heavy coating, deliberately preserving the leather’s natural marks and wrinkles.
While three-year-old horse hides are typically used, two-year-old hides were deliberately selected for this material.
Despite being chrome-tanned, the emphasis is on a fine grain and supple texture.
Particular care has also gone into the black finish. After the leather is infused with oil, it is buffed to bring out a rich, deep color and a natural sheen, resulting in a leather with plenty of character.
Making a down jacket from horsehide.
That may sound simple, but making one in leather is fundamentally different from making one in nylon.
With lightweight nylon, the down inside readily pushes the fabric outward, creating volume. Leather, on the other hand, is heavier and more rigid, so even with the same amount of down, it resists the fill and does not puff up sufficiently.
A leather down jacket like this one requires roughly two to three times as much down as a nylon down jacket to achieve the same volume.
There is a substantial amount of down inside the jacket, not just beneath the visible leather. This is one reason leather down jackets are so luxurious.
And, naturally, once you use that much down, you also have to consider how to keep it in place.
In this jacket, every down compartment on the inside is divided to match the paneling of the outer leather.
Rather than covering one large down pack with leather, each leather panel corresponds to a down compartment on the inside.
This makes it difficult for the down inside to shift between compartments and, by design, helps keep it from escaping through to the outer surface.
If down appears through the seams when you first start wearing the jacket, it is not newly escaping from inside, but down that was caught in the seams during sewing and has worked its way out.
Filling it generously with down and keeping that down securely in place. To achieve both, the same care has gone into the parts you cannot see.
Since the sleeves are also made of horsehide, the fit required some thoughtful design.
The sleeves use a raglan construction. Without a distinct shoulder seam, the continuous line from the neckline to the sleeves makes it easier to move your arms. The design follows the body’s movement while retaining the firmness of the horsehide.
The naturally sloping shoulder line also softens the look of the generous down fill and the bold character of the horsehide. This was another reason for choosing raglan sleeves.
The stand collar is not too high and is shaped to sit naturally around the neck.
The front closure combines snaps and a zipper, with an EXCELLA zipper.
If lightness were the only consideration, nylon would be far more practical.
Yet we chose horsehide, filled the jacket with enough down to push against the leather, and tailored the internal construction to contain that down.
As you wear it, creases form in the sleeves each time you bend your arms, and a sheen develops in areas that see friction. Inside, it is unmistakably a down jacket, but its outer surface accumulates time just like a leather jacket.
You do not need to go this far just to stay warm.
We believe that even this lack of necessity is part of what makes this leather down jacket so luxurious.
