Why Nappa Leather Jackets Are Ideal For The British Summer
If there’s one word to describe the typical British summer, it’s ‘brief’, which is why owning leather blazers and leather jackets can be great, providing a comfortable extra layer that looks stylish, feels comfortable and provides protection on cooler days, chillier evenings, breezes and even the occasional damp we’re known to benefit from in the UK.
But if you mention the idea of biker jackets or leather coats of any kind to people they generally think of heavy leather made from cow hide that’s thick, less flexible and can make you feel too warm. After all, it’s summer, not winter, and leather jackets should be flexible enough to cope with the cooler days as well as the frozen days.
Can leather be lightweight, comfortable, flexible and yet still provide enough protection? What is the best type of leather for the variable British summer?
The answer is something called either nappa leather or napa leather. It’s unmistakable, because nappa leather is considerably thinner than the heavy duty cow hide leather you see biker jackets made out of. Nappa leather is warm, soft and comfortable, as well as looking extremely stylish.
The difference is all down to where nappa leather comes from. Unlike most high street leather jackets nappa leather jackets are made from unsplit sheep skin, lamb skin or even kid skin. This type of leather is very soft, very flexible and is used to make a range of luxury items from furniture coverings to luxury car interior upholstery.
If you’re looking for a leather jacket for the summer, and well into the autumn, then look out for nappa leather – it’s the best way of combining comfort with style, whilst not losing out on the practical benefits of having a real, genuine leather coat.
But a quick word of warning, because you might have noticed the word ‘unsplit’ used just now. What does that mean?
Basically you may find that some manufacturers of leather jackets cheat a little, trying to make cow hide into something more like nappa leather. The way they do this is to use a laser to slice through the cow hide, peeling layers away to create a much thinner form of leather.
But although his method is sophisticated, it can never achieve the same level of comfort, style, feel or look as real nappa leather. It’s simply a cheaper alternative, and as with anything – you get what you pay for.