Caring for vegetable-tanned leather in its first year

Vegetable tanning uses tannins from bark and leaves and takes months rather than days. The leather that comes out is stiffer, paler and far more reactive than chrome-tanned hide. It will darken, soften and record your handling. Almost all of that is the point.

Months one to three: use it and leave it alone

Resist conditioning a new bag. Fresh vegetable-tanned leather already carries the tannery's fats, and adding cream early can blotch the surface or over-soften a panel that is meant to hold structure. Just carry it.

Months four to twelve: one thin coat, twice

Around the four-month mark apply a small amount of neutral leather cream — genuinely small, a pea for a whole tote — with a soft cloth, and let it sit overnight before buffing. Repeat at eight to ten months. That is the whole regime.

The two hard-to-undo mistakes

• Direct sun. Vegetable-tanned leather tans exactly like skin, so a bag left on a car seat for a week will darken in a hard-edged patch that never quite evens out. Store it out of the light.
• Heat drying. If it gets soaked, blot it and let it dry slowly at room temperature. A radiator or a hairdryer will shrink and crack the fibres permanently.

Water spots usually even out as the bag continues to darken. Give them a few weeks before you try to fix anything.