Today I got up early and met up with some other girls who didn’t have class, including my two roommates Camille and Taylor, and we set off for the leather market also known as the San Lorenzo market. I went there with the intention of simply looking around, I was not ready to make any big purchases. But I wanted to look into a book bag/purse, a leather jacket and maybe a leather duffel bag. We arrived at the market around 9:30ish, of course we had to stop at a café for espresso and croissants. The girls we were with went to a leather bag store they had in mind in order to pick up a few things. We have found that the vendors will love anyone who buys something in their store (especially if you make multiple purchases, this often leads to “special friend price”). The vendor at this particular bag shop was in love with my friend Michelle. Before we left the shop he asked to take a picture with her. We all laughed and of course Michelle said yes, little did we know he was going to sweep her off her feet while saying “amore” over and over again – only in Italy.
Next Camille, Taylor and I went off just to browse through some jackets nothing too committal. We saw a nice shop off to the side and decided to wander in. A few hours later and several shops involved all three of us had our very own genuine Florentine leather jackets. It was one of those purchases that we went into saying, “oh I’ll just try it on” and once seeing ourselves in the mirror absolutely fell in love with the jackets.
I think my favorite part about all of our jackets was how completely different they were. Though yes they are all brown and yes from the same market. None of us purchased them from the same vendor. My vendor was Marco, his family is from Sienna and he makes the jackets himself! He also sends leather jackets to his brother who has a leather jacket shop in California. I like to get to know the vendors when I make purchases, can you tell? I wasn’t in the shop when Taylor purchased hers but Camille’s vendor was Valentino. Valentino was a beautiful Italian man that smiled the entire time we were in the shop (I think he has a bit of a crush on Camille). His family is from Florence and he and his father gave us a quick lesson on leather…
Lambs skin jackets are softer and will shape to your figure the more you wear them. Both Valentino and his father prefer lambs skin, “it doesn’t get scratched and over time it will end up looking vintage.” There is also calf skin which is much more rigid and becomes lighter and lighter over time but is a more heavy jacket.
Anyway, back to our jackets…The other reason I love all of our jackets is because they are all completely different styles. We each have unique stitching, cuts and details to our own jackets. I like this because I think each jacket goes with our different personalities.
So our adventure in the leather market I would say was a success. We went into it not intending to spend 120 euro (originally 300, have to love the sale season) but each of us came out with our first true Italian leather jackets.
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