What is High Quality Leather?

You like the way quality leather goods and leather accessories look and feel. Soft, supple pieces say they have been well-sourced and crafted with care for a consumer who knows the difference. Selecting high-quality leather is a lifestyle choice for the conscientious consumer. It helps to know what to look for and to gain a better understanding of how to tell what is quality leather and why.

Global standards for leather quality

At Ivy Cove, quality isn’t a question. We are part of a vertically integrated leather goods company that is committed to using only the best materials that have been produced in a way that guarantees only the best sourcing practices, protects the planet in the tanning process and is consumer conscience when delivering only quality goods. 

Tanners, tannins and tanning

Standards can guarantee responsible practices, but process ultimately determines quality. For Ivy Cove Montecito Leather Goods Company, quality is everything. It’s a look, feel and smoky aroma. Tanneries in Italy and Argentina specialize in conditioning fine quality leather sourced and crafted in cultures built over centuries. Makers of fine leather goods must only work with tanners of fine leather. 

Tanning involves tumbling sheets of hide in barrels with tannins. Tanned leather has moisture drawn out of it and is conditioned in a way that stops it from breaking down, preserving the fine leather. Within tanning, selecting only the finest hides and treating them makes all the difference. Our production facility in East Asia is equipped with its own testing laboratory for quality control and selecting only the highest quality genuine leather.   

World-class leather goods production

Production in East Asia is another in-house part of the vertical operation for Ivy Cove Montecito Leather Goods Company. Manufacturing includes the cutting room and retanning (round two) to get the product closer to its finished stage. Often leather crusts — the stage where the leather has been tanned but not finished — arrive at the factory. Crusts can be cut to size, retanned and dyed in order to be ready for the wardrobe. 

Sourcing, tanning and manufacturing leather goods is an intricate process, and cutting corners impacts quality. With Ivy Cove and its Montecito Leather Goods Collection, production is totally under control from start to finish. For discerning clients, quality leather has an unmistakable aura of sophistication. For Ivy Cove, it’s a labor of love, a refined process without room for compromise.