I'm curious, which do you prefer?
I used to be more partial to grained/pebbled leather because I love touching and looking at the texture of the grain. Of course, smooth leather has a visible grain too, but it's much finer. I always associated grained leather with more durability and found that the texture hides dents and scratches fairly well - perfect for a handbag that gets knocked around. For this reason, I tended to stick to grained leather bags over the years because I like my bags to look well maintained without too much effort. Smooth leather was reserved for small leather goods, shoes and clothing only (like my buttery lambskin jacket).
However, some of my more recent bags have been smooth leather. I have a Fendi Kan I, Givenchy WOC and Proenza top handle, all in smooth leather (I believe calfskin?). When I purchased them, I accepted that there would be some babying involved and inevitable scratches from fingernails, keys and whatnot. But to my surprise, smooth calfskin isn't as fragile and delicate as I expected. I found that most scratches can be buffed out gently with my finger so long as they don't "break" through the surface of the leather. Once the grain is somewhat realigned, the scratch isn't visible anymore.
What's more, in my personal experience, I discovered that I don't get color transfer on my pale grey Kan I, whereas I frequently do if I'm wearing my grained leather bags. The tiny "pebbles" that I love looking at so much are great at clinging onto dye/ink from clothing, shopping bags or furniture. But my Kan I seems to have nothing on it, as if the smooth texture means everything just slides right off.
So I used to be like 90% for grained and 10% for smooth, but my observations over the last 2 years or so are definitely pushing me closer to 60-40%, especially if I'm considering a light colored bag. My eyes still prefer the look of grained leather but my brain has started to acknowledge that smooth leather (specifically calfskin) actually has a lot going for it in terms of maintenance.
I used to be more partial to grained/pebbled leather because I love touching and looking at the texture of the grain. Of course, smooth leather has a visible grain too, but it's much finer. I always associated grained leather with more durability and found that the texture hides dents and scratches fairly well - perfect for a handbag that gets knocked around. For this reason, I tended to stick to grained leather bags over the years because I like my bags to look well maintained without too much effort. Smooth leather was reserved for small leather goods, shoes and clothing only (like my buttery lambskin jacket).
However, some of my more recent bags have been smooth leather. I have a Fendi Kan I, Givenchy WOC and Proenza top handle, all in smooth leather (I believe calfskin?). When I purchased them, I accepted that there would be some babying involved and inevitable scratches from fingernails, keys and whatnot. But to my surprise, smooth calfskin isn't as fragile and delicate as I expected. I found that most scratches can be buffed out gently with my finger so long as they don't "break" through the surface of the leather. Once the grain is somewhat realigned, the scratch isn't visible anymore.
What's more, in my personal experience, I discovered that I don't get color transfer on my pale grey Kan I, whereas I frequently do if I'm wearing my grained leather bags. The tiny "pebbles" that I love looking at so much are great at clinging onto dye/ink from clothing, shopping bags or furniture. But my Kan I seems to have nothing on it, as if the smooth texture means everything just slides right off.
So I used to be like 90% for grained and 10% for smooth, but my observations over the last 2 years or so are definitely pushing me closer to 60-40%, especially if I'm considering a light colored bag. My eyes still prefer the look of grained leather but my brain has started to acknowledge that smooth leather (specifically calfskin) actually has a lot going for it in terms of maintenance.
