It is an Italian leather.....a glazed lightweight cowhide pleather (oops, I mean "leather"). Sorry...
Flimsy...yes...see my top handle pic. Strange how it looks nothing like the stock photos when you remove the packing! It got worse than this after the leather broke in.
I was showing this bag to a manager, and she was SHOCKED...this was before the bags were introduced. She actually said NO WAY should anyone put up with this, especially at the $758 price, and she encouraged me to write a complaint letter to Coach. I'm embarrassed to say I've never gotten around to it, but you can see what I'm referring to. I just got rid of it and got the satchel, but it's already starting to puddle around the sides and bottom. The trim on these bags is actually not garcia, and is reinforced.... so if you can stick to a bag that has more trim, you're better off in this regard (structurally speaking).
To me they just didn't choose the type of leather well for the style bags. The gaucho leather on the Hamptons Vintage line is so much nicer, even though I admit it's a bit shinier than I like.