Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Buckskin is soft, pliable leather traditionally made from the hide of deer or elk; modern buckskin may be made of sheepskin tanned and dyed to resemble buckskin. The name comes from buck, a male deer. Clothing made of buckskin is referred to as buckskins.
|
|
Most leather is valued for firmness or surface finish; buckskin is valued for the opposite qualities — pliability, softness and a cloth-like willingness to fold and move with the body. Those properties come from the hide and its preparation together. Deer and elk hides are relatively thin and fine-grained, and traditional soft tanning worked the hide until its fiber network stayed separated and mobile rather than locking into the stiff sheet that heavy vegetable tanning produces. The result breathes better than heavily finished leathers, absorbs moisture, and can be sewn with ordinary heavy-duty equipment — the combination that made it a clothing material long before it was a fashion reference. Its matte, pale buff surface also takes dye evenly, which is why substitute sheepskin versions are dyed to match the color buyers expect from the name.
Buckskin's open, lightly finished surface is also its vulnerability. It marks with water, darkens where it is handled, and stiffens if it is soaked and dried without being worked soft again as it dries — behavior typical of lightly tanned leathers. Garments are therefore spot-cleaned where possible and cleaned by leather specialists when washing is unavoidable, and stored dry and ventilated. In use, the material's strengths are comfort and grip: buckskin gloves and work garments stay flexible in cold weather that stiffens heavier leathers, and the surface gives natural traction. Those are material facts, independent of the frontier imagery the word carries — imagery earned because a soft, sewable, repairable hide was genuinely the most practical clothing material available in the settings that made it famous.
Traditionally the hide of deer — the name refers to the buck, the male deer — or elk. Modern material sold as buckskin may instead be sheepskin that has been tanned and dyed to reproduce buckskin's soft, matte, buff-colored character, so the fiber content of a specific product depends on its labeling.
Suede is defined by its finish: the flesh side of a hide buffed to a nap, and it can be made from many hides. Buckskin is defined by its source hide and its soft, pliable tanning — a whole leather valued for flexibility and a smooth, velvety hand rather than for a raised nap on one face.
Clothing made of buckskin is collectively called buckskins — historically jackets, leggings, shirts and gloves associated with frontier and Western wear, often fringed. The fringe had a practical origin: strips shed rainwater away from seams and the body.