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Leather  Protecting, caring and washing Leather
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Protecting, caring and washing Leather |
It is best to protect your newly acquired piece before you put it on. This way, if you ever get dirt or water on it, it will be easier to get it off and to make sure your leather stays happy. The best thing is to first clean it with a leather cleaner (normal soap is too abrasive) as it might have some dust and oils from hanging in the store and being tried on by other people.
The trick to take good care of the leather is to see it for what it is: skin. So treat it like you would your own if you are a girl or like a computer or car if you are a guy (could I be making more of a generalization here? Anyway, you get the point)
*note that the following guide is for leather but NOT suede.
What you need
* A good leather cleaner
* A good leather conditioner (I personnally use Lexol for both but I have to admit I haven't experimented much yet)
* 4 towels
* A bucket or bowl (depending on the size of the item you want to clean) of warm water (never hot).
*This is preferably done the day before you plan to wear it as opposed to same day, you'll see why in a moment.
Cleaning
The purpose of cleaning your leather, aside from making it look cleaner obviously, is to wash away all the dirt, oil and chemicals (from pollution, acidic rain and such) that are abrasive. If you condition on top of a dirty garment, the conditioner might not be absorbed well and the dirt will continue to damage the leather.
So first, take a towel and wet it in the bowl. Leave it as damp as you would to clean your own face. Apply soap on it and work it onto a lather. Clean the leather like you'd clean yourself, paying special attention to seams and cracks the only difference, is you want to do little by little, to avoid too much water getting absorbed by the leather while you clean it all.
Then, take a second towel, wet it too, this time to wash off the soap. Make sure you do it properly, because you don't want soap residue on that leather. Once you have cleaned off properly dirt and soap away, take a third towel and pat dry.
Conditioning
Before you buy your leather garment, it has been treated with oils and such to slow aging and to make it soft and supple. Wearing leather and cleaning it takes those conditioners away, so it is important to restore them to protect your item a give it a longer lifespan.
Start by shaking the conditioning bottle and dampening the remaining towel with it. Don't use too much, it is better to apply multiple coatings then go all out at once. The motion itself doesn't matter, unlike latex. Once you've done the whole piece, leave to dry in an open space (to avoid the conditioner to spread on another piece of clothing if you hang it in the wardrobe). Some people say to wipe the conditioner off after half an hour. I prefer to leave it overnight. By the morning, the conditioner has all been absorbed by the leather and it's more supple.
For really dry and stiff leather: forget about the coating stuff, go all out! However, if it is cracked because it's too dry, there's nothing to be done as far as I know.
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