World is teemed with brands. Brands for elite, brands for mediocre, brands for all and sundry! Brands, brands everywhere as Walter De La mare stated: water, water everywhere, so it could be coined as brands, brands everywhere.

We are enveloped in an era of snobbery and mercenary mindset. We tend to live, just to gratify others, mostly. We are paranoid with ideas of fashion, jewelry, shoes, clothing and color combination. Nothing in this modern life is escaping show off, simulated in the name of taste and style.

Same goes for wearing clothes. The main function of clothing is to cover your skin and provide it a shelter from external harms, but the cult shifted to style, rouge and modish strains of delicacy!

Waxed jackets are one such idea, that appeals the mind of human being as it’s an excellent combination of style and luxury. One feels comfortable and stylish by wearing it and it saves from external damages to the skin. In order to help you understand what is waxed jacket, leather jacket and what are the benefits and drawbacks of these two types of jackets, I have written a very honest review regarding it. It is up to you to check the genuineness and purity of the jackets, purchased from any brand, non-brand available online or offline.

What is a waxed Canvas?

In stone age, primitive people use leaves to cover themselves from each other or to save themselves from harsh weather conditions. Times changes and they got shift from leaves to rags, then to unstitched clothing.

 Clothing once was the necessity, but in this modern era, in reaction to the changing cult and influx of fashion, human mind is prone to take interest in varied fabrics.

The need has now being shifted from fashion to comfort, but to a modern man, comfort must include fashion and style. Amongst many of the materials, canvas is the leading material that speaks of fashion and comfort alike.

 Canvas is always known as a synthetic material. It is a combination of linen imbued with wax. In other words, linen cloth is drenched in heavy coating of wax and then dried, processed to turn into fine fabric of canvas….named as waxed canvas.

History of waxed Canvas

 Necessity is the mother of invention’, the proverb goes true to all the past inventions, and could be the leading factor, torch bearer of the future inventions as well. Everything has a starting, so it would be with canvas. Many questions teem our minds like: why waxed canvas was invented. What was the purpose of waxed canvas? Who were the first people who wore the waxed canvas for the first time?

 Well, the sailors first used the canvas in 15th century. It was the need of the sailors to wear the cloth that can withstand the harsh weather of sea and can save their bodies from dirt and water. The only material they can think of was canvas. This idea hit the jackpot!

 The idea was caught from the sails; they noticed that the sails of the ship is durable and strong enough to bear the thunderous winds and driving rains. This observation leads to making canvas into something wearable. They inspected the canvas sails and turned them into waxed canvas, cut it into sizes and tailored their costumes.

 The idea went like fire in the wilderness. Now waxed canvas is used as a good material for shoemaking, umbrella making, car covers, sofa covers, mattress covers, gloves and jackets too.

Benefits of waxed Canvas

 Human beings are detrimental in weighing the pros and cons of things, then they made up their mind whether to buy it or not? Peculiarly benefits are the sensitive parts that allure human mind the most. There are countless benefits of waxed canvas, but few of the benefits are listed below:

• Hardwearing

One of the benefits of waxed canvas is that it is hardwearing. By hardwearing we mean, it has the capacity of tolerating the harsh weather, especially the stormy weather, windy weather and rainy weather.

The ideal places to wear waxed canvas is cold and desert areas. In cold regions, the waxed canvas is the higher solute material that can withstand the adversity of cold weather and in desert area it can serve as a natural shield to sand and dust.

People in outdoor games, like cycling, mountaineering, hiking, skiing and riding mostly wear waxed canvas.

• Durable

Durability is always on the mind of all human being irrespective of rich or poor as we all think that whatever we are purchasing must come with good lifeline. It should be durable enough to go through at least five years! Waxed canvas is a material that is durable. By durability we mean, it is capable of keeping heavy loads/weights.

 It is a sturdy material when blended with cotton fabric and can out shone many fabrics in resistance and strength.

• Waterproof

Human beings, whether they live in high lands or low lands, in dry or humid areas, they are always hit by rain, storm, pollution, dirt and number of other natural disasters and we need to save ourselves from its harmful effects. Coming to this the only material that comes to our mind is waterproof material. It can save our cars, homes and clothing too!

Waxed canvas is the only material known as good enough to avoid simmering of water inside.

Raincoats and umbrellas are good examples of canvas as a waterproof material.  People also use canvas as a shield to cover their cars, parked outside.

It is benefitting to the feeding mothers as they can just spread canvas sheet on their sleep areas and put the baby to rest over there. The urination will not seep through the waxed canvas sheet.

• Always in Fashion

The sole need of clothing is not covering the body or shielding it from injuries, sunburns or other pigmentation. Nowadays it include fashion and style too.

Human beings are blessed with aesthetic sense that is the reason why we tend to seek comfort with style. We need to make ourselves comfortable, but we all loathe the idea to attire ourselves that envisaged us as heavy, chubby and sheep like in appearance.   

Fashion is nothing more than an idea that makes you look  good even in the eyes of the beholders, so we are nearly obsessed with the idea of style with comfort.

Canvas fabric, weather it is canvas leather or canvas cotton fabric, we love to wear it due to its sleek outlook and resistance to dirt and wrinkles.

• Waxed Jacket Patina
• Patina is a chemical process in which a soft sheen is developed on the surface of the leather that gives style to the jacket.       

The person who is wearing that waxed jacket patina looks classy as it gives character to the product. It is the most desirable feature in leather products, especially in jackets.

Vintage looks are trending, so the special sheen of the jacket, leather jacket add panache to it, thus making it more stylish and attractive an outfit to wear. The glazed jackets blazed the fashion nowadays.

Waxed Jackets Vs Leather Jackets

Waxed jackets and leather jackets are in comparison. Why so? The answer is simple. We always make comparison just to see the amount of difference between the two.

Leather jackets are relatively lower on its handling with water. Waxed jackets are way more proficient in their handling of waterproof feature.

In our planet Earth, we, human being enjoy varied climatic zones, and the zones with cold, humid, dry, dusty climate or weather conditions are more inclined to face extreme weather conditions.

It is difficult for natives to endure the harsh weather with typical clothing or clothing suitable to majority of the people around the world.  

Both the costumes have their unique features, but advantage is given to waxed jackets as it is more durable, sturdy and waterproof.

Downsides of Waxed Jackets

 Like advantages, there are much wider range of disadvantages as well. Waxed jackets are durable, greased with sheen, patina glee, dirt proof, waterproof or water resistance quality, stylish, trendy, tartan lining are attached to it to make it comfortable.

The checkered inners are made of tartan lining, the fabric, it is used to make the waxed jackets look sophisticated and comfortable.

To call a few, the cons of sailcloth, the waxed jackets are listed below:

• Lack of Breathability
• Waxed jackets are coated with paraffin wax, which make it look as super chic, but paraffin wax has its disadvantage too when it comes to clothing; the paraffin wax is highly and rich in its sticky, gluey properties and mostly result in breathability issues.

Nothing escapes through it, no dirt, no water and hence no air too! For breathing, living human, it is difficult to wear it in humid, dry, dusty and hot climatic areas or weather conditions.

This feature is making it a big negative a clothing for kids and old people. Both are physically not apt or strong enough to cope up with enclosed waxed jackets greased with either linseed oil, fish oil or paraffin wax.

• Waxed Jackets are heavy

Leather is never lightweight, as we all know, but when it comes to water resistant, waxed fabric, coated with fish oil, linseed oil or simply paraffin wax, it does give weight to the jackets made of waxed canvas, could be fashioned out of cotton fibers, cotton clothing clubbed with tartan lining or other synthetic fabrics.

Clothing of any kind  are never meant for young people and enjoyment can never be restricted to them too. There is whole lot of old people who love to travel a lot and who love to wear modish clothing as well. What is there for them in name of trend and comfort? By all means, old people cannot wear heavy clothing! Waxed jackets are heavier for their stature, as they had become fragile physically.

• Pricier than Synthetics

World is always categorized in terms of financial classification. The whole world is not rich. The whole world is not poor. The whole world is not mediocre as well. In fact, it is the combination of all the three strata— the economic groups. The leading brands seldom keeps in mind the demands of the poor or the middle group. The hinge is always the rich economic group.

The struggle is just to entertain the rich?  What about the other two groups? Aren’t they affected by weather conditions? Aren’t they given the basic right to wear clothing to avoid or endure the harsh weather conditions?

 The pricing of waxed leather jackets or waxed jackets are higher and hence could not be afforded by low-income group. This feature is counted as disadvantage.

How to wax a jacket

There are two ways of waxing the jacket: industrial and home based. The list of necessary equipment required are as follow:

First Method:

List of Required Materials:

1. Item of clothing to be waxed: cotton, synthetic, leather, canvas
2. Wax: paraffin, fish oil, linseed oil
3.  A firm surface: iron board, marbled floor
4. A heat source: hairdryer, blower
5. Plenty of time: preferable in your vacation or holidays.

Process of Waxing a jacket:

• Eliminate the candle (wax) from its aluminum container. Remove the taper. Leaving a block of wax behind.
• Look for a flat, well-founded surface and lay out your item of clothing onto it.
• Scrub the wax block, fish oil/linseed oil with the help of brush over the clothing you have chosen. When you are applying the wax, make sure to compartmentalize the desired clothing. Always begin with the sleeves, front half and rear half later.
• Cover the chosen fabric area fully with wax, the more the better.
• The wax now needs to melt into the fabric of the clothing: cotton, canvas.
• Dry the wax onto the fabric. Never go for iron as after applying the iron right to the wax, the iron began to smoke profusely. It can cause fire, which can lead to set the fire alarm to alarming mode. This method can give way to running to fetch a cloth to dry the melting wax, or you could experience panic attack on wondering what had happened to the waxing! It can frustrate your neighbours also, as we all are living in a sensitive age of terrorism.
•  Use Hairdryer for drying the wax, it would take just few seconds to completely dry out the wax onto the fabric of your choice.
• Repeat process after ten to twenty minutes to achieve a double coating of wax. Do not forget to do the same on the other half of the sleeve, smearing two coats of wax and disbursing particular care to the areas of intersection or edges, as we often ignore what is hidden or covered.
• Reprise the same set of steps on the other sleeve and then to main body (back and front of the jacket), avoid doing it on tartan lining.
• Apply the coat almost thrice to get modish and impeccable finished look.
• When applying the wax, pay particular attention to seams, seam junctions and buttons of the jackets.
• The jacket, including hood should be completely covered with wax coating.

Second Method:

List of Required Materials:

• Soft cotton cloth
• Fish oil/ coconut oil/ linseed oil
• Hairdryer
• Required attention
• Required focus

Process of Waxing a Leather Jacket:

• Take soft cloth/ brush
• Apply small amount of wax/ desired oil mentioned above.
• Start the application from sleeves, upper sides
• After drying the sleeves, apply the first two steps on the other sleeves.
• Get hold on back of the leather jacket and repeat the first two steps.
• Dry the wax/ oil with hair dryer.
• Take buttons, seams, and pigeonholes into special consideration while polishing the wax on the leather jacket.
• Repeat the process three times to get excellent result.

Conclusion:

            The idea of waxed jackets initiated in 15^th century. The inventors were sailors, at first. They came up with this idea by looking at the sturdiness of the sails of the ships, the travelled in. it fascinated them and trickled their mind that leads to wearing the same fabric onto their bodies as well.

              The canvas fabric gave hype to synthetic materials prevalent in those times. The invention leads to idea of waxing other fabrics made from cotton fabric. The idea hit the world like fire and buzzed the brands. They came up with waxed canvas jackets, waxed leather jackets and waxed denim jackets.

                Waxed jackets have their pros and cons that can be used as good idea, threshold to decide whether to buy it or not? People can take advantages and disadvantages into consideration while buying the waxed products. If one is not happy with the price, then the person can wax his or her jacket at home as well. Two methods are famous in making outfits into waxed outfits. Enjoy your costume with skill and wisdom!