The Best Leather Bags and Belts Start With The Right Leather Hide

When Stephanie and I first started Embrazio we only knew that we loved the look, feel, and smell of leather.  We really didn't know much about the different ways leather is graded and selected or which grade or type of leather is best for a specific application.  Now after four years of selecting and working with many different types of leather we have a tremendous appreciation for the inherent differences and can assure you that all leather is not equal.

One experience that highlights leather distinctions is our journey to create the original Tasca Crossbody Bag.  We were inspired from a design perspective by a very high end leather clutch we liked that was already in the market.  We soon found out, however, that you will carry a "box" (fairly stiff leather clutch) but you won't wear one.  We tried washing the leather to soften it, we tumbled it for hours, we even tried shaving it down.  Nothing worked because we were using the wrong leather to start with.  We realized we needed to move away from cow hide to something much thinner and more supple from the get go. 

This led us to adopt sheepskin.  Ultra soft, thin, and available in many colors, starting with sheepskin cut our production process in half.  More importantly, the resulting bag is light, soft to the touch, and can be easily worn as a leather cross body bag or clipped to belt loops as a hip bag.  The only challenge with sheep skin is that we have to select it from the local after market in Leon and the colors we need aren't always available.  That's one of the reasons we've moved on to the Capretta leather, or goat skin hides, we use for the next generation of our small cross body called the Stretta.  But that's another story........