Published by almostvintagestyle
Hi! I am Almost Vintage Style and this is where I review jeans, jackets, boots, shirts, and anything related to the raw denim and "vintage work wear". I cover everything from Naked and Famous to Himel Brothers, discuss developments and trends in this subculture, and share some of my travel experiences.
All opinions are my own and while I hope to be as honest and unbiased as possible, I am of the firm belief that it is not possible for humans to be completely objective so do keep that in mind. I hope you find what I have to say informative as well as enjoyable to read!
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Hey man, really enjoyed your video (and that quasi-fetish video request in the comments—so strange). You have extensive experience and I always enjoy reading your thoughts on the leather/workwear scene. I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on the color of the hide playing into the role of evolution/patina. In your video you highlight aging as a major indicator for leather quality (and use it as a metric to address the titular question) and assert that vegetable leathers patinate more dramatically and beautifully. I agree with you on this, as I tend to think of patination as the darkening of leather in areas of high wear and exposure. Most of your jackets/boots are in various shades of brown or earth tones, which I believe lend themselves to the patination you highlight in your videos. On the other hand, with black leathers specifically, aging/evolution tends to be unique from any other color of hide. If it’s struck through the only evolution you’ll likely see is graining, but teacore leathers seem to be in high demand these days (Fine Creek Leathers, Flat Head, and Aero’s new blackened brown leather). I am curious as to whether your opinion on CXL extends to the black hides as well, as I find the black CXL to be in many ways distinct from other CXL. Unlike some teacore Shinki leathers and the Blackened Brown Vicenza, CXL is not a brown dyed leather with black surface paint, but rather a brown hide with that distinct dyed oil/wax sitting at the surface. I personally believe that this makes black CXL a unique black hide that ages in a distinct (and desirable) way, even from other teacore leathers. The dyed oil behaves in a way that a vegetable-dyed black leather can’t and creates a more subtle gradient than the removal of surface paint can. I have an Aero Sheene in black CXL FQHH, so my experience with black chromexcel is limited to horse-hide specifically, but I was curious about your thoughts on the matter as you have come into contact with significantly more leather jackets than I have. Apologies also as I am sure I contextualized my question with a lot of information you already know, but I figured other readers might not. Thanks, and again, I really enjoy your work!
I do like black CXL in some situations more than others, but it still is not my favorite and I would still choose other tea core leathers over it due to other characteristics such as grain. With that said, the Role Club boots in black CXL certainly look like they age better than the brown ones.