This is my main concern with Empreinte. Feels like Michael Kors. Originally, when it came out in 2010, it was a very soft, Taurillon-like leather. Soft, supple, dyed but not treated, and then embossed with the Monogram as a finishing touch.
It was truly luxurious, but easy to damage. Those bags lost shape easily, the embossing faded over time.
And the glazing paint was also problematic during the first years, batches and batches of those Empreinte bags were recalled.
Vuitton listened to the crisicism. And they 'adjusted' the leather. Now it is not just dyed, but receives a very heavy (almost plastic-like) coating. It is way stiffer like that than the original.
When the classic Vuitton embossed leathers get a pattern, they just simply emboss the Taïga or Épi pattern onto a cowhide. That's it. The pattern in itself provides the scratch resistant durability. But it maintans the leather values: if you look close enough, you can still see the pores, and of course, they heavily smells like cowhide.
Well, the new Empreinte is different. It does receive this very heavy coating layer. I even would say that now they emboss the leather-pattern into the coating as well, since the pattern doesn't feel as natural as Taurillon or the old Empreinte. It feels man-made. I don't see the pores (probably the heavy coating again), and whenever I did smell a new Empreinte piece in store, I haven't felt the cowhide smell that I usually do on practically anything else at Vuitton. This way they gain excellent durability, but at what cost?
I believe that there might be some batches that come out less coated and they might smell more like leather, but I haven't seen any of those in years. If any of you love it, don't get offended, but I don't consider Empreinte a luxury leather.
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