Womens Suede Jacket

Suede is leather turned inside out. It is made from the inner side of the hide, buffed until the fibres lift into a soft nap, rather than the smooth outer grain side used for a normal leather jacket. That makes it softer and more matte, and also more absorbent, so it needs different care. This one is genuine lambskin suede with a button front, flap pockets and a point collar, in olive, brown or black, sizes XXS to 3XL.

Suede is the same hide, turned over

This is the single most useful thing to understand about suede and almost nobody explains it.

A hide has two sides. The outer side, the side the animal’s hair grew from, is the grain. It is smooth, dense and naturally protective, and it is what a normal leather jacket is made from.

Suede is the other side. The inner surface is split away and buffed until the loose fibres lift into a nap, which is what gives suede that soft matte surface that changes shade when you brush your hand across it.

Everything else about suede follows from that one fact. It is softer because those fibres are loose. It is more matte because the surface scatters light instead of reflecting it. And it absorbs water and oil almost immediately, because the dense protective grain layer is the part that was removed.

So it is not a lesser leather or a cheaper leather. It is a different surface with different strengths, and it wants to be treated as its own material rather than as leather with a texture.

The care is completely different, and getting it wrong ruins the jacket

Please read this section before you buy anything to clean it with.

Do not use leather conditioner on suede. This is the mistake people make and it is not reversible. Conditioner is designed to feed a smooth grain surface. On suede it soaks into the nap, mats the fibres flat and darkens the colour in patches. A conditioned suede jacket looks greasy and stays that way.

What suede actually wants is a suede brush, which is a small brush with brass or nylon bristles. You brush the nap to lift it back up when it flattens. That is most of the maintenance, and it takes about a minute.

Spray it with a suede protector before you wear it, not after it gets marked. A protector puts a barrier over the nap so water beads rather than soaking straight in. Applied to a clean new jacket it works well. Applied to an already stained one it seals the stain in.

For marks, a suede eraser lifts most dry marks. Anything oily needs a specialist, and quickly, because oil spreads through the nap.

Rain, honestly

Suede and rain do not get along and I would rather tell you now than have you find out.

Untreated suede water spots immediately, and the spots dry as visible darker patches with hard edges. Treated suede handles a light shower.

If it does get wet, let it dry naturally at room temperature away from heat, then brush the nap back up once it is fully dry. Do not brush it wet and do not put it near a radiator.

This is a dry weather jacket. That is not a flaw, it is what suede is, and every suede jacket in every shop has the same limitation regardless of price.

Why olive is the interesting colour

The three colours do genuinely different jobs.

Olive is the one worth buying. Green suede has a depth that flat colours cannot manage, because the nap catches light unevenly and gives you two or three shades of the same colour depending on the angle. It works with cream, white, denim, brown and camel, which is most of a wardrobe. It fights with black, and there is no way around that.

Brown is the classic and the safe one. It reads as autumn and it goes with almost everything. It also shows marks the most of the three, particularly around the cuffs and pocket edges where hands go.

Black suede is the most wearable and the least interesting. Worth knowing that black suede fades to a slightly dusty grey brown over a few years in sunlight, more visibly than black smooth leather does.

The shape is a shirt jacket, not a coat

This is cut like a shirt: point collar, button front, flap pockets, a single vent at the back, and a length that sits at the hip.

That means it layers as a shirt would. Over a tee or a fine knit, under a coat in winter. It is not outerwear on its own in cold weather and it has no insulation.

The advantage is that it works nine months of the year in a way that a heavier jacket does not, and it can be worn open as a layer rather than only fastened as a jacket.

Fit

Sized to the bust. Measure rather than using a dress size.

Take your usual size for a relaxed fit over a tee or a fine knit. This is drafted loose rather than fitted, which is what a shirt jacket should be, so do not size up expecting to need the room.

Sleeves should end at the wrist bone. Body should sit at the hip.

If you want to wear it over a jumper, go up one, but the proportions get boxy and it starts to read as a coat rather than a shirt jacket.

Specification table

Garment measurements by size. Measured flat, in inches. These cells stay empty until you send production figures. Publishing a measurement that is wrong causes returns, so I have not guessed.

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