Washing instructions:

We've noticed that even following these instructions the leather will not be quite as soft at first after washing, it dries slightly stiff but soon regains it's flexibility once it's against your body and warmed up. There is no need to feed the leather, your body oils will do that for you. 

This bit is really important - White items should not be washed with coloured articles. In fact white items shouldn't go anywhere near coloured leather. At all. Ever. Period. White leather has similar properties to blotting paper, it will soak up dye from any colour and anything near it. So now we know about the quirkiness of white, let's talk about the rest:

Hand Wash -  For best results -

• Produce a good lather in warm water using mild detergent  - Immerse your item, or part of it and wash gently on your hands, then rinse.
• Or we often spot clean really successfully using simple handwash and just put the offending bit of leather under the running cold tap.
• Gently squeeze out excess water and pull gently into shape.
• Leave to dry away from direct sunlight or heat - I just leave draped over a towel rail for 24hours
• Coloured items may be washed with things of a similar colour but white items should not be washed with anything other than white.

Machine wash:

• Wash your item on the low temperature (up to 30°C) of the delicates/wool cycle of your washing machine
• Use a soap that is recommended for washing silk and woollens.
  • Do not use bleach or Sodium Perborate (I'm sure you wouldn't).
  • Do not use any fabric conditioner - bit of a surprise this one, I know,  but it really messes up the leather. There is no need to feed the leather, your body oils will do that for you.
• Spin gently, pull into shape and drape to dry in natural room temperature away from direct sunlight.
• Do not tumble dry or place on a radiator - this kind of quick drying with heat makes the leather go stiff.
• When nearly dry, put the item on to restore shape and softness. Then hang it up to dry fully (take it off first!)
• When dry place on your body and buff the surface with a soft cloth.

Colour Fastness

The colour fastness of leather is highly dependent on shade - each colour responds differently. We have found that even with following the instructions, there will be a little loss of colour. Nothing really noticeable but you may see some dye in the rinsing water. 

 

How to Iron Your Leather 

Yes! You can iron leather - it's a bit like using hair straighteners on your hair, makes it all flat, kink free and shiny. Here's the one tip you need

Our silk organza pressing cloth is see-through for easy alignment, smooth so that the iron doesn't catch on the leather and helps to protect the leather from shine and pressure point marks etc. You could use a silk scarf, but having a see-through pressing cloth makes life so much easier.

To iron the leather make sure you use a NON-STEAM iron - we don't want a single drop of steam to get onto our lovely leather. Steam makes leather shrink and go hard a bit like metal - and you don't want metal pants when you were expecting glove leather. So we keep a separate run of the mill, bog standard iron that we never put water into in the first place for all our ironing - part of the tailoring process here at the Lux studio.

Heat the iron up to high and then start pressing through the cloth, keeping moving like you would anything else, so you don't scorch or burn the leather underneath.

And that's it! Job done! Give yourself a High Five for being brilliant!

Leather Corsets are DRY CLEAN ONLY because of the metal boning.