Aniline leather

What is aniline leather?

Aniline leather is smooth open-pored leather. It doesn’t have a pigmented color layer so it’s sometimes called “natural leather”. This missing layer makes the leather feel warm and waxy. Another feature of aniline leather is the clear pore structure on the skin, this is easy to see thanks to the lack of pigmented layer on the hide. This naturalness means that the leather is considered to be high quality, so only a few hides are suitable to be made into aniline leather. Any defects in the leather, such as tick bites or scratches from horns, will become visible during the dyeing process. Aniline leather is used to create leather bags, furniture, shoes, and clothing.

Aniline leather pigmentation and coloring

Aniline leather is either left undyed or colored using soluble aniline dyes. Leather that is then treated with a light pigment layer is called semi-aniline leather. This type of leather sits somewhere between “natural leather” and “pigmented leather”. Some aniline leather has a thin protective layer applied during the manufacturing process. However, this layer mustn’t be more than 0.01 mm thick, otherwise, the leather grain and hair pores will not be fully visible. Leather that doesn’t have this protective layer of pigment is known as pure aniline leather.

This type of leather will fade quickly in the sunlight and is susceptible to water and grease.

Check out the video below to find out more information about the different types of leather:

Sources accessed 06/30/2022:

• https://bestleather(.)org/types-of-leather/aniline/
• https://dalgado(.)de/en/the-journal/all-about-leather/what-is-aniline-leather
• https://steelhorseleather(.)com/blogs/the-journal/aniline-leather
• https://www(.)billykirk(.)com/blogs/journal/what-is-natural-leather
• https://www(.)rodenleather(.)com/single-post/2017/07/03/what-is-pure-aniline-leather
• https://www(.)leather-dictionary(.)com/index.php/Semi-aniline