From Hollywood punk-stars to Bollywood divas, faux leather has found its way from the runway to our streets. From western style guides to eastern fashion choices, faux leather care is important than ever before. Whether you love faux leather because its cruelty free or you don it because it’s not heavy on the pockets, faux leather is relatively affordable and low maintenance.
A faux leather jacket can be styled in a myriad of ways and gives you the ultimate finish that can transform any look. So whether you are looking for the perfect gangster look or want a leather jacket for women faux leather is your ideal, budget friendly choice.
Learning how to care for faux leather is essential to keep your leather jacket good as new. It can also serve as a preparatory endeavor before you set out to invest in real leather. While caring for an original leather product may scare you away, faux leather is relatively straightforward to care for and protect against damage.
For the ultimate guide on how to protect faux leather keep reading below tips from industry experts.
STEP 1: Know What Faux Leather Is!
In our leather jacket protection guide, we stressed upon the importance of knowing the type and quality of your leather jacket. For a faux leather jacket it is essential to know what the jacket essentially is. This ensures better care of your pleather or faux leather jacket.
Faux leather is synthesized plastic that can be either PVC or PU. The synthesized vinyl like material is embossed with grain and supported by a plant fiber like cotton. Since faux leather is essentially plastic, it can easily be cleaned with mild water and soap. However, the catch here is not to let your jacket dry out. Since dried out faux leather can cause cracks to appear across its surface which wil just damage your badass vibe.
A good approach to follow when learning how to protect faux leather is by carefully reading and assessing the clothing label. The manufacturer generally lists down precautionary measures to follow such as if machine drying is permissible or not.
STEP 2: Water And Washing Machine Are Your Best Friends
When it comes to cleaning any dust or debris from your faux leather jacket, using water with mild soap is ideal to achieve a new finished look. All that you have to do is dampen a microfiber towel in a soap solution and rub your faux leather gently. Avoid using rough cloth or harsh hand motions across the leather surface because it can cause scratched to appear.
For much tougher stains we suggest going for a machine wash. Faux leather jackets like our black leather jacket generally come with care instructions that allow machine wash. But the key here is to avoid using bleach and other strong or potent detergents. This is to avoid the leather jacket from fading or drying out.
For a machine wash, we recommend a cold water wash since hot water can cause the faux leather to melt or wear off. Another tip for ultimate faux leather care is to use slower spins in the washing machine.
Since, the lining is exposed to more moisture and sweat, washing your jacket turned upside down ensures a much thorough clean up of your leather jacket. It also allows the surface to be exposed to minimal harsh spins. Alternatively, using a mesh laundry bag to place your faux leather jacket would also suffice.
STEP 3: Drying And Conditioning Your Jacket
We have already stressed upon how faux leather is prone to breakage and cracks. Therefore, avoiding contact with direct sunlight is imperative when it comes to faux leather care. Similarly, one should also avoid using automatic dryers to dry out your jacket. Instead focus on air drying.
Rinse your faux leather jacket in cold water to avoid excess detergent from accumulating across its surface. Follow up by hanging your jacket on a sturdy coat hanger and letting it dry out for a day in a well ventilated room. This gets rid of any germs as well as avoids growth of mildew cause by moisture.
Once your jacket has been dried, you would need to keep its surface conditioned and moist. This is to maintain the plasticizers in your faux leather and keep it supple and soft for a new and fresh look. One can use faux leather cleaner and conditioner to keep the surface non-greasy yet supple.
STEP 4: Storing You’re A Wrinkle Free Look
Just like real leather, faux leather jackets are also prone to wrinkles. While most wrinkles will smooth over during the drying process. Yet if your leather jacket is not hung properly on a sturdy hanger, you may need to iron it out.
However, since faux leather is essentially plastic, using a very high heat setting can your jacket to melt off. For an ideal ironing technique we suggest turning the jacket upside down and then ironing the cotton and viscose lining. Be sure to use a low heat setting so as not to melt your faux leather away because the damage would indeed be irreversible.
The bottom-line
With faux leather, learning how to protect faux leather is fairly easy. However, one must get their hands on properly dyed high quality faux leather. Because investing in a faux leather piece also requires money. If your leather is too cheap, chances are it would be impermeable to stains and would crack easily. The color may also wash off giving you an ugly, unfinished look.
Faux leather requires minimal effort and can also be cleaned with alcohol swabs that add a nice finish after the cleanup.