History of Leather Jackets

History
Leather, a material made from tanned animal hides, has been used as clothing since the earliest days of human existence. Prehistoric people wrapped animal skins around their bodies for warmth and to absorb the magical powers that they believed the skins imparted to them. Phoenician sailors often brought brightly embroidered leather garments from Babylonia to the countries they visited. Leather shoes were found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs.

Soldiers of the Roman Empire invaded the lands of northern Europe and discovered Teutonic nomads wearing leather garments as protection against the harsh elements. When these soldiers returned to Rome with leather pants, the toga-garbed officials of the city tried to ban their use, but to no avail. Romans were soon using leather for shoes and tunics as well as for breastplates and shields. In fact, the first recorded tanning guild was formed in the Roman Empire over 2000 years ago.
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In the Middle Ages, the Moors introduced the European world to softer Cordovan leather which they made from goatskin. By the Renaissance, tanners' guilds had been organized all over Europe. The Mayan, Incan, and Aztec cultures in Central and South America also used leather, as did the American Indians, who sewed garments from buckskin, doeskin, and buffalo hide.

During the Stone Age, garments were held together with leather straps that had been threaded through holes punched in the hide with crude implements made of stone. The hides were stiff and did not last long before putrefaction made them unwearable. Later, people learned to soften the hides by rubbing them with animal fat and used stones to clean the animal cells from the skins. It is also possible that in trying to dye the skins with various substances, early people discovered further preservation methods.

Preservation methods have varied over the centuries. Hides have been smoked, salted, soaked in urine, rubbed with animal dung, beaten, and dragged over sharp sticks. Prehistoric people and some modern Eskimos have even resorted to chewing the skins to remove hair, pieces of flesh, and ultimately, to soften the leather. In some cultures, the skins were sprinkled with talc and flour to replace the natural oils. Women's leather garments were often doused with perfumes.

Although leather was a valuable trade commodity, the tanning work was dirty and odorous, and leather workers were usually relegated to the outskirts of town.

Ancient Hebrews are credited with inventing the first tanning process using oak bark. The American Indians used fish oil for the same purpose. American colonists found that plants such as the hemlock and chest-nut trees could also be used for tanning. In the 19th century, machines were developed to perform these processes and an American chemist developed a tanning method using chromium salts that cut the processing time from weeks or months to just a few hours.

Raw Materials

Antelope, buckskin, lambskin, sheepskin, and cowhide are the hides most commonly used to make leather jackets. As soon as the skin is removed from the animal at the meat processing plant, it is refrigerated, salted, or packed in barrels of brine. It is then sent to the tannery where the skins undergo a series of processes designed to preserve and soften the hides. The work performed at the tannery is of utmost importance to insure that the resulting garment is of high quality.

Sewing materials such as thread, lining, seam tape, buttons, snaps, and zippers are generally purchased from outside vendors and stored in the garment factory.