Minerva® Liscio
by Badalassi Carlo

Minerva is a top-grade vachetta, but it's more than just another soft-tempered Italian veg tan with an aniline finish. While the Liscio ("smooth") variant features the calfskin-like ultra-fine grain and firm hand typical of vachettas found in fine dress shoes, it does something its peers do not: it grows darker and more beautiful with wear. Minerva patina is more like burnishing, with a smoother, shinier surface where subjected to frequent or heavy use. The dark tones which emerge are not due to stretching or bruising, but because a surface polished by wear better renders the full range of color beneath. This unique character profile is made possible only when heavy bovine shoulder hides of the finest and most uniform grain are tanned with a proprietary blend of fats and waxes—and dyed-through with deeply-penetrating dyestuffs—for a remarkably-consistent finish and richly-saturated color rarely seen in such a hearty, full-grain leather.