Deerskin Western Shirt 'The Big Buck' - Olive

The leather used on this shirt is made of hides from deers living in the woods and mountains of Germany and Austria. They are not kept as livestock or in barns like cows, they run free through the woods and hills. Many of the hides will show scars which are a byproduct of the antlered males fighting with one another during the rutting season. These animals are smaller than cows resulting in smaller hides. Usually, the younger and smaller ones are selected because the meat is easier to use. It is therefore difficult to get larger pieces of leather without any scars. The tanning method is an old and traditional process known as Sämischgerbung. The tannery making the hides for Iron Heart is the last one in Germany and there are only a few others left in Austria. Tanning this way is enormously labour-intensive and time-consuming. The result of this tanning process is a super soft and hard-wearing leather, that bears the unique characteristics of how the deer lived its life. The tanning results in a beige-coloured leather (you can see it on the inside of the shirts). The natural dyes are applied to the surface several times by hand with brushes. The leather is not dip-dyed, the colour is only on the surface and the leather does not absorb the dye consistently leading again to a sometimes uneven result. From the starting point with the tanning process to the final leather, it takes at least one year. This is not just leather, it is a cultural heritage which just like traditional Japanese indigo dyeing, presents a distinctive tone of individuality within each dyed hide, so although we have tried to select the tanned hides that are as close in colour to one another as possible, there will always be some variance.