Here's How to Care for Vintage Leather (And What Will Ruin It Forever)
Plus: Sabrina Carpenter's SNL looks are a cultural co-sign for vintage, and the word that's lost all meaning in pre-loved fashion. Also, did Target's Woolrich collab forget to include wool?!
Welcome to Second Take: 🎤 what dealers and collectors are really talking about behind the scenes of the multi-billion dollar vintage and secondhand fashion industry.
PS: If you work in resale, your $5 paid subscription to Pre-Loved is likely a business expense.
Hey hi hello, everyone! I’m polishing this letter off as the sun comes up because I’m headed to Chicago for a long weekend at a friend’s. PS: did you hear Pickwick Vintage Show is doing their first-ever Chicago edition next month? Midwesterners, we should all go! This one is jam-packed, so I’ll keep the intro note brief…
In this letter, you’ll find:
How to rescue vintage leather and properly care for your pieces (plus what you should never do!)
Sabrina Carpenter’s SNL appearance gave vintage dealers a megaphone
Why eBay took secondhand sellers to advocate on Capitol Hill
The meaningless word everyone in vintage fashion can’t stop using
Why you’re going to start seeing vintage DVF wrap dresses everywhere
Target’s Woolrich collab forgot to include wool (?!), so I found you 12 vintage Woolrich pieces, under $100 (sizes M-XL) instead
Below, I talked to Michelle of Salassan about leather restoration, fall jacket trends, and why people search for years to find “the one.”
How to Rescue Vintage Leather:
Michelle Blary Konate, of Salassan, specializes in vintage leather. Over years of sourcing, curating, restoring, and selling hundreds of garments, she’s developed a deep knowledge of what makes vintage leather exceptional—and how to bring damaged pieces back to life.
We spoke about everything from conditioning techniques to market trends, and why leather jackets inspire a different kind of customer loyalty than any other vintage garment.
I’m curious how you got into vintage leather specifically. Was there a particular piece or moment that hooked you?
It stumbled upon me. I started to enjoy selling vintage leather because it felt like an heirloom, something people can actually keep for longer.
About two years into selling vintage, I was at a show with this old leather jacket and it started a conversation. People are always on a quest for the “right” one when it comes to a leather jacket. It was those conversations that hooked me—ones I don’t usually have with something like a shirt because that’s more of a quick thing. But leather—it’s more expensive, people usually have a backstory: “oh, I’ve been looking for this for three years.” It’s cool. You’re not just selling things, you’re helping people out.
I have people who come back and they have stories about their jackets. They’ll ask me to source specific shapes or styles for them. People are willing to search for a long while until they find the right one.
You’ve handled hundreds of vintage leather pieces at this point. What are the tells that separate exceptional leather from mediocre? And how do you care for them?
Honestly, the jackets that last the longest are not necessarily the “nicest” leather.
Lambskin has a really nice feel to it, but it’s not gonna last as long because it’s very soft—it won’t last like a thicker hide. But I’d rather have lambskin anyway, you just have to condition it and take care of it.
Coach bags are vegetable tan leather, very thick and untreated—the patina ends up being really nice after multiple wears.
Deerskin—like those ‘70s leather jackets, usually caramel colored—do not put water on them! These usually come in with stains, often on the arms and armpits, because water has discolored them. There’s nothing you can do to fix that. When they tan deerskin, they basically use corn or vegetable dyes, which creates leather that’s very porous—it’s almost like the water is just going straight into the leather.
Suede is also tricky because it’s leather that hasn’t been polished—that’s why it still has texture. You can’t wear it when it rains because that would stain—there’s no coating to protect it.
Can you tell me about a specific piece you rescued that seemed hopeless, or a mistake you learned from the hard way?
Washing leather is possible, but it has to be a certain type—one that’s very thick, like cowhide. Otherwise the water will actually crack the leather and damage it. You can wash and restore Coach bags, for example, using saddle soap and a natural fiber brush — particularly in the darker colors.
Once, I had a water-damaged leather shirt that was wrinkled. I didn’t know what I was doing yet, so I tried to steam it. It was a very thin shirt, and I basically burned the leather—it looked like burned plastic. The edges retracted and the part touching the iron shrank. The shirt was ruined forever.
This was before I sold vintage—I was like, never again! Lesson learned: never steam your leather.
When you’re assessing a piece, what are the dealbreaker condition issues versus the ones that are actually easy fixes?
Big slashes or tears on the shoulders or upper back—that’s a dealbreaker. It happens on thin ‘70s leather jackets, especially from carrying a heavy bag. When you wear a jacket, the shoulder is folding and supporting everything. Tears at the lower back are fine, but tears on the upper body that support the whole jacket? I just don’t do it. Only if it’s next to a seam where I could sew over it or make it into a different design.
Anything else I can fix. Sometimes the surface is scratched and peels up a little bit—I can glue that back. With lambskin especially, sometimes the upper layer just peels up. You glue it back with leather glue, wipe off all the excess immediately—or it’ll dry shiny—then put conditioner and oil on top. Sometimes you can barely see it, but it works best on black or dark pieces. For colors, you have to find leather paint that matches and blend it. You have to anticipate how the leather paint will dry—sometimes it dries darker or lighter.
For really small tears, I use an actual needle as my glue application tool. I put the glue on the needle, transfer it to the tear, press, wipe off the excess with a microfiber cloth—so you don’t leave fibers from a towel or paper towel—then finish with the oil.
What about storage and maintenance? Any tips?
Anything over 120 degrees will make the leather really dry out.
But outdoor air is magic. Hanging pieces outside for three hours makes a huge difference with odor. If there’s smell, it’s usually sunk into the lining, so you can clean the lining: separate the lining by opening the seam at the bottom, leave it attached at the neck. Spray with wrinkle spray or something that fights odor and smells good, steam just the lining, then air dry outside. Sometimes you have to do it two or three times. Condition it, put it outside, repeat. But it works!
Don’t steam the leather itself for odors. If there’s mold that’s transferred from the leather to the lining, spot clean with a sponge and water, but make sure it doesn’t go through to the leather. Put napkins or paper between the lining and leather.
If the leather itself smells and it’s soft lambskin, put conditioner on it and hang it outside until the odor goes away.
What products do you actually use on vintage leather? And what gets recommended everywhere but you’d never touch?
Mink oil with a microfiber cloth for softer leathers like lambskin. For thicker or coated leather, a natural fiber brush—never synthetic or it’ll scratch. Never use paper towels or regular cotton towels—the fibers get stuck on the leather. Use microfiber—it doesn’t shed.
For suede, a natural fiber brush is good, with super thin bristles. When you brush it, you have to brush it in the right direction.
Cream works if the leather is hard enough, but it’s not my favorite because it gets stuck in seams—it’s better for something like shoes. Beeswax for really thick, stiff leather to soften it. Very useful for shoes. Comes in different colors.
Saddle soap works for restoring bags, heavy duty leather, or shoes. It gets rid of patina but it’s wet, so it’ll darken things temporarily.
Can people get vintage leather pieces altered or tailored?
You can’t make a leather garment bigger—when you undo seam allowances, you create real holes, not like fabric where the needle just goes between threads. Those holes are permanent. So you can only make things smaller and sew over the old holes.
When you try to tailor leather, the seam at the bottom is skived—cut in half so it’s not bulky when it’s folded. Regular tailors don’t have that kind of machine—you have to go to a specialty place like the Leather Spa in New York, but major specialty leather alterations can cost $300-$400 so that’s something to keep in mind.
I don’t recommend you alter sleeves. The patina is already different on both sides from wear—maybe they wore a bag on one shoulder and stretched the leather. It’ll never be symmetrical. If you’re trying to make changes, I recommend you only hem at the bottom for the least impact.
PS: For more vintage care tips like this, check out the 1-800-VINTAGE Discord server started by vintage dealer, and friend of Pre-Loved, Alex:
Finally, how has the vintage leather market changed in the past five years? What are buyers looking for now?
Right now people are into bomber jackets and racer jackets. But not the racer jackets with numbers and teams—that was so big last year it’s almost like everyone bought them. This year it’s simple ‘90s, Y2K bombers. Very minimal with snap closures.
Also suede jackets—suede in general.
Thank you, Michelle! Find Salassan at Seven Wonders Collective, on Instagram, or pop-ups like the Brooklyn Flea.
