Horsehide "bleeding" on shirts worn under the jacket

[Hammer Down]

I was speaking to a rep at a respectable leather jacket distributor the other day, and he said that the Aeros tend to "bleed" for at least the first year. Is this true? He says you can't really wear nice clothes under the jackets for at least a year due to the jacket discoloring the clothes under it in whichever colored the jacket is dyed.

That means, according to my source, that Areos would discolor a white shirt black if the jacket is a black horsehide. Ditto, it will allegedly discolor a white shirt with brown smudges if the jacket is brown horsehide. The rep did not say if these "discolorations" could be washed out or not from the shirts. I kind of had the feeling they could, up to a point. Maybe not on a white shirt, but on darker colors. Still, how inconvenient if that is true!

He said this problem is not specific to Aero, either. Back when Vanson made horsehide, he said that the Vanson horsehide jackets did the same thing.

Say it ain't so! Even my patience and devotion to horsehide has limitations. I don't want a jacket like that. My 641HH Schott jacket did not stain anything. I had no bad experiences with my Schott horsehide "bleeding" on shirts. Then again, I only wore it a few times before selling it because it did not fit me worth a darn.

Any feedback on bleeding? I've heard you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. Now, a beet, certainly. I worked in a beet factory as a kid and turned several pairs of jeans red, and then pink after a long summer of graveyard shifts and washing the jeans over and over again in a futile attempt to get out the red.

But an Aero? Ye gads. I'm crossing my fingers that $1,000 Aero horsehide jackets do not bleed on shirts worn under them.

Hammer

 

[Seb Lucas]

I'm no fan of horsehide, but other leathers can do this too. It's no the hide it's the processing.

 

[HighandDry]

One of the reasons that Aeros develop such a nice broken in look is because of the dying process. It will definitely "bleed" and transfer color (at least mine did). The bleeding isn't really a problem to your shirt, but to the surfaces that your coat rests on (such as your car armrest).

If you wear selvedge denim, the dying process allows the denim to bleed and this allows the wear lines to develop in the denim.

It's well worth it to me to develop the look I want. Personally, I don't want a 5 year jacket to look brand new.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I've probably had 14-15 brown and black FQHH Aero jackets over the years...and none of them ever bled color..or too gradual for me to ever notice. I have a new black HH Stuart...and brown HH Bootlegger right now. No bleeding.
However..Aero's Cordovan has been known to bleed and transfer for some reason.
HD

 

[Jeff M]

I have both a brown and a cordovan Aero FQHH jackets.
I break in my Aero's by getting them soaked wearing them out in a good rain, walking around "exercising" my arms/shoulders..then letting them dry naturally.
When I did this with my brown FQHH, the jacket bled along the hems/cuffs where the water sheeted off. This didn't happen with my cordovan.
Since that first "treatment", there has been no further "bleeding" from the brown FQHH.

 

[dr.velociraptor]

Aren't Aero jackets lined with wool or Alpaca wool? I doubt the dye would bleed through the wool onto your shirt but you never know. If I paid $1000 for a jacket and it bled all over my shirts and couches I would be quite pissed. I owned a briefcase that I bought handmade from a tack shop and it bled all over my trousers when draped over my shoulder. To eBay it went, I wouldn't bother with something that destroyed everything in its path with bleeding dye for a year. But I doubt that is the case with Aero HH jackets based on their reputation here.

 

[Jeff M]

You specify what kind of lining you want.
Alpaca, cotten drill, tartan light wool. The alpaca is a "cold weather" lining. Say, from 40-60 deogrees. I don't have it in any of mine.
I have either the cotten drill or tartan.
My experience with "bleeding"came from the first time I go my jacket soaking wet in a rain storm...and it was at the hem line where the rain water drained off. Nothing through the lining....and had no bleeding since.

 

[HighandDry]

When you get your coat, there's a tag which says, "This garment has been manufactured from horsehide using the original 1920's tanning process. Originally a workwear material and as such may experience color loss from time to time."

HD, I would never have noticed the color loss, but my car seats are a grey leather and it definitely transferred a lot of color to the seats. On a day to day basis, it's not something that's noticeable.

 

[Dav]

I haven't experianced any staining from my FQHH jacket but my Steerhide Aero is a nightmare on a white collar, even after two winters of wear.

 

[Peacoat]

You will get comments, first hand and otherwise, and opinions, informed and not so informed, from both sides of the aisle on this issue. But one thing you can be sure of is that Aero's "tanning process" or "dyeing process" isn't the culprit as Aero buys its hides fully tanned and dyed from an outside source. Used to be Horween's in Chicago--I think it still is. Interestingly, Horween's horsehide comes from Europe, mostly Italy and France, if I remember correctly, is processed, and then is sent back across the Atlantic to Aero. Ever wonder why your HH jacket was expensive?

Most of the complaints I have heard over the past several years have been directed at the Cordovan, as HD noted above. FWIW my Aero Cordovan in steer has never bled a drop. I think it probably has more to do with the batch of the processed hide than the type or color of the hide itself.

 

[tonypaj]

I've had FQHH jackets in Cordovan, Cherry, and Black. Different models, and every single one of them bled, wearing a white shirt was impossible. They do not bleed through the linng, but on collars, cuffs, and so on. They also smudged my office wall, I'd hang them on the back of the chair, and at times lean back so that the jacket touched the wall. Lots of colors still there...

I did not mind the bleeding really, I drive a Jeep, wear mostly denim shirts and like, my problem with the jackets was simply that they are massively heavy and not very comfortable. I have one left, a black 30s Halfbelt, and that one I'll keep, the rest are lighter hides, with which I have never had the bleeding problem. Having noticed the bleeding, whenever I was in someone else's car, I made sure to take off the jacket and not smudge the leather seats or armrests.

 

[Sillyrib]

I've only had bleeding problems with the Black .

 

[dr.velociraptor]

I did not mind the bleeding really, I drive a Jeep, wear mostly denim shirts and like, my problem with the jackets was simply that they are massively heavy and not very comfortable. I have one left, a black 30s Halfbelt, and that one I'll keep, the rest are lighter hides, with which I have never had the bleeding problem. Having noticed the bleeding, whenever I was in someone else's car, I made sure to take off the jacket and not smudge the leather seats or armrests.

Glad I caught this topic, this is disappointing to say the least, I was going to purchase a half belt from Aero, but no way I'm dealing with this much color bleed that it's staining my walls and car seat, or that I have to take off before sitting anywhere or in someones car.

 

[Edward]

FQHH Bootlegger, Cordovan - some bleed on the collar; 30s Halfbelt FQHH, occasional collar bleed. Both on lighter coloured shirts, never anything that needed more than a single wash cycle to clear. I only ever found it happened on days when I was wearing the jacket all day and got a bit warm here and there. Nothing really worth getting worked up about.

 

[tonypaj]

Glad I caught this topic, this is disappointing to say the least, I was going to purchase a half belt from Aero, but no way I'm dealing with this much color bleed that it's staining my walls and car seat, or that I have to take off before sitting anywhere or in someones car.

The color always came off with normal washing of shirts. There was not enough to see if you are wearing a denim shirt, or anything else except white. Light colored leather seats in cars were stained by my jackets, as were light colored any other things they came in touch with, such as light khaki pants.

Again, that was not a worry to me, I love the look of the jackets, and can handle not wearing them in a car. I simply prefer lighter hides as they are more comfortable and more versatile, you can easily wear a t-shirt with an A-2 or A-1 and a long oilskin or wool coat, rather than just a thick FQHH.

 

[ButteMT61]

Never had a cow, goat or HH jacket bleed on anything. Aero or otherwise.

 

[Tito]

I agree Dav, the same experience with all my black HH....imposible wear with shirt, only with sweater.

I haven't experianced any staining from my FQHH jacket but my Steerhide Aero is a nightmare on a white collar, even after two winters of wear.

 

[GriffDeLaGriff]

I never had any bleed either.

I wonder how many of you have put some sort of lotion on the jacket?

 

[Philalethes]

Hi Hammer Down,

I started a similar thread when I was considering an Aero.

As I explained in a post there, I experimented with the different samples I received by rubbing a cloth over them and seeing whether/how much color was removed. I later repeated this experiment with different batches of some of the same hides. In neither batch of the oil pull was any color removed, and this is one of the reasons I went with it.

I have owned a Barnstormer in oil pull now for over two months. I have worn it in light rain, and I haven't had any problems with bleeding.

I find it ironic that the oil pull has not bled, since the finish seems to wear off much more quickly than some of the other hides.

 

[Philalethes]

Never had a cow, goat or HH jacket bleed on anything. Aero or otherwise.

My goat G-1 did bleed once onto the shoulders of a white shirt. But the shirt was already wet from the rain, and since I was already soaked, I decided to wear my G-1 in a heavy downpour for a while to have it form to my body.

The color came out of the shirt after an immediate heavy scrubbing and a few washes. No problems with bleed since.