Natural Hermes leather? What does that mean? What is an unfinished vs finished leather?

 

 Dalmatian Buffalo

 Vache Natural

Good Morning,

               I wanted to do a little lesson about "Natural" when describing Hermes leathers ...funny thing natural can mean "a color" such as pale tan or buff for instance on a finished leather; or it can mean that the leather surface is unfinished or  naked/ lacking a clear or colored coating on top of the leather .

A naked leather is considered an unfinished leathers such as Barenia an oil tanned leather ( all of the Barenia colors are still unfinished leather olive, fauve, black or indigo) or Vache natural (which is usually semi finished similar if not the same as a vegetable tanned cow hide). What was once called "natural" Barenia is now called fauve.

The color "natural" can be found on many finished leathers such as Epsom, Charmonix, Courchevel, Ardennes, Clemence, Box Calf , Box Napal and I'm sure some others which I did not mention...


What is a finished leather?


 A finished leather generally means one or more clear or colored top coats has been applied on top of the surface of the leather.
Most modern leathers today are finished leathers, that's why they can often be restored or touched up by applying a matching colored finish to areas of wear or stains or color-loss how well that works out depends upon the restoration specialist technique and eye as well as the re-finishing products they use as well as the amount used and dilution of said re-finishing products.

Some examples of Hermes Finished leathers include  With lesser or greater degrees of finish
Fjord
Charmonix
Box Calf
Veau Courchevel
Togo
Clemence
Evergrain
Epsom
etc...





Additionally, if you have a black mark on a white bag for instance it maybe difficult if not impossible to completely remove and or hide the mark below additional layers of white finish... usually it will show up through the cover finish... in a relatively short time. Much like trying to cover a black mark on a wall with white paint... that mark may migrate up through the coverage white paint over time...