How to Clean a Leather Jacket

Leather jackets have many undeniable benefits, such as excellent appearance, protection from cold and wind, durability and usability. Such products can be combined with almost any clothing and with proper care can last for several years. However, they may also require special care, that makes lives of their owners more complicate. Let’s learn how to clean and care for a leather jacket.

General Cleaning Tips

Before genuine leather jacket is being cleaned, it is recommended to estimate the contaminated area. Here are some general tips that will help you to clean a product:

Dust, liquid stains and other minor contaminants can be removed with the help of water, soap and ammonia spirit.
Stains from felt pen and writing-ink, as well as soil with body oil and perspiration of the inner lining of a jacket are cleaned with ammonia spirit.
If you need to remove oily stain from thick leather, use gasoline.
Oily stains from thin leather can be removed with the help of chalk, starch and talk.
Water and salt stains are cleaned with vinegar.
You can make leather jacket softer with the help of castor oil.
If you want to return natural shine to things and to get rid of unpleasant smell, lemon juice and orange peel can be used.

How to Care for a Leather Jacket

Any genuine leather or leather-cloth jacket needs regular care, even if there are no visible contaminated areas on a product. Such measures will preserve the original color and pleasant appearance of the thing for a long time. A solution of soapy water and ammonia spirit in amount of 10 drops per glass of water will help to care for outerwear.

To wash leather jacket, soak a sponge in a soapy water and clean all the product. After that, rinse the solution with a sponge moistened in clean water, then wipe dry the item. At the next stage, jacket must be lubricated with a special cream, glycerin or castor oil. This will make the material softer.

How to Clean White Leather Jackets

Use milk to remove dirt from white jackets. Its advantage is that it will not leave stains and greasy marks on things, as well as can soften the material. As an alternative, you can use lemon juice, which has the same benefits.

How to Clean Soiled Jackets

The inner lining of genuine leather jackets, especially collars and cuffs, can be soiled with body oil. If you want to avoid contamination of this area, it is recommended to wear a scarf and regularly wipe collar with rubbing alcohol. Also, with a slight contamination of the collar, you can wet a cotton pad with make-up milk.

If the contamination is severe, medical alcohol will be the best way to get rid of the problem. Soak a cotton pad in it and clean collar, cuffs and other soiled places of leather jacket. To soften leather, you can rub it with lemon juice and glycerin.

How to Clean Complex Spots

You have few chances to deal with oily, ink and other complex spots of leather jackets with the help of soapy water. But depending on the type of contamination, you can use the following ways to eliminate them:

Fatty stains from dense leather can be removed with gasoline or turpentine, which are sold in hardware stores. Dip a sponge or soft cloth in gasoline, wipe the spot with a stain. To get rid of an unpleasant smell, leave the product in the open air for a few minutes, then wipe with lemon juice.
Gasoline or turpentine will also help to eliminate mold and paint stains. But you should use this method with extreme caution, and before applying test the product on an inconspicuous area of leather in order not to damage the jacket.
Fatty stains from leather can be cleaned with chalk, starch or talcum powder. Dissolve any of these products in water until you get white gruel, then apply it to the problem area. Leave leather jacket for a night, and next morning wipe it with a sponge, soap solution, and then apply glycerin.
Inks from ballpoint and felt-tip pens can be removed with the help of cotton pad moistened with medical alcohol.

How to Wash & Iron a Leather Jacket

A leather jacket can’t be washed in a washing machine in automatic mode, because it will discolor and lose its original appearance, which will be impossible to restore. Leather-cloth jackets can be washed in a washing machine, if the manufacturer has mentioned about this on the label of a product.

But the inner lining of such things needs to be washed from time to time. To do this, turn the jacket inside out, wash it with a sponge which is well moistened with water, and then with a solution of wash powder or soapy water. Don’t let moisture to reach the outer part of leather jacket. Then you should rinse the lining with the help of cloth moistened with water. Then it is needed to be drawn at room temperature, hanging it turned inside out on a hanger.

If you want to iron a leather jacket, you should do it very carefully from the inner side, placing a cloth between jacket and press iron.

A Few Helpful Care Tips

In order to extend the life of leather jacket, use some common tips for all occasions:

By no means dry the genuine leather or leather-cloth product near the heaters and under direct sunlight, as this may cause cracking of the material. These things should be drawn at room temperature. It is enough to hang the jacket on its hanger and wait until it dries.
Wear leather jacket only after it is completely dry. If you wear a wet jacket, it can stretch.
Deal with stains and dirtiness as soon as possible. It is much easier to clean fresh spots, then those which are already firmly absorbed into the leather.
Don’t rub the product too tight during cleaning. This may cause deformation of the material.
In order to let genuine leather and leather-cloth jackets retain their original attractive appearance and color as long as possible, it is recommended to use special leather care products. Also, such measures will help to clean leather products more easily.
Don’t rub the white-colored genuine leather jacket with orange peel. Otherwise, orange spots may appear on the product.

See all available women’s and men’s leather jackets on this page.