Our leather is the result of centuries of tradition.

It feels amazing, it ages like a fine wine and it smells like beautiful leather should.

The majority of our Leather is sourced from Santa Croce a region in Italy that specialise in vegetable tanned leather. It is certified as 100% vegetable tanned. Which means it is tanned purely by using animal fats and vegetable extracts without adding any environmental damaging chemicals or synthetic agents. In addition all our leathers are finished by hand with the colours hand applied in the traditional method. This creates leathers that have warmth and character, something not found in leathers made by more industrial methods.

What are the raw materials used for vegetable tanning? Vegetable tanning uses natural tannins, obtained from different parts of plants including woods, barks, fruits, fruit pods and leaves. The most common tannins are obtained from Chestnut wood (Castanea sativa), Quebracho wood (Schinopsis lorentzii), Tara pods (Caesalpinia spinosa), Catechu (Acacia Catechu), Chinese gallnut (Rhustyphina semialata), Gambier (Uncaria gambir), Mimosa bark (Acacia meamsii), Oak wood (Quercus sp), Sumac (Rhustyphina coriaria), Turkish gallnut (Quercus infectoria) and Valonia Oak (Quercus macrolepis). The purpose of tanning is to alter the raw protein structure of animal skin, preserving it from decay and turning it into leather that will last a lifetime.

Italian vegetable tanned leather is based on ancient production methods from Egypt, Rome, and Greece as early as 1500 B.C.The earliest known example of vegetable tanning comes over 5,000 years ago from a small Egyptian town named Gebelein, located about 40 kilometers south of Thebes on the Nile River. So the tradition of these leathers goes back a long way.

Specific tanneries have specific recipes for creating their leathers often passed down from the generations before them. Ours is no different. 

Our Tan leather:

Our Tan leather is what is known in Italy as a Vachetta leather. It is the natural leather colour generated in the first vegetable tanning process and holds the special quality of getting darker and richer with age. When you receive your tan bag freshly out of the Rufus Country box it will look light in colour. Do not worry this will change as soon as you start to use your bag. Sunlight makes the natural leather darken and it gains a natural patina with use. A few months in and the light colour will change into a beautiful rich tan that will only get better with age. Above is a new bag verses a used bag to give you a comparison. We take great pride in using premium leathers and tanneries that are at the top of their game!

All our other leather colours will remain the same through out their lifetime it is just the tan leather than changes with use.