Faux leather does not age the way real leather does. It does not develop a patina; it either stays as it was or it fails, and it fails in three predictable ways — cracking at the flex points, peeling at the seams, and stiffening after heat. Knowing how to care for a faux leather jacket is mostly a matter of avoiding those three things, and almost none of it involves washing.
Can you wash a faux leather jacket in the washing machine?
As a rule, no. Faux leather is a polyurethane or PVC coating bonded to a fabric backing. A wash cycle attacks that bond in two ways at once: the agitation flexes the coating repeatedly while it is soft with water, and the spin cycle creases it hard. Both produce the fine cracking you see across the elbows of a jacket that has been through a machine.
Clean it by hand instead, and only where it is dirty. Wipe the mark with a cloth wrung out in cool water with a drop of mild soap, then go over the same area with a second cloth wrung out in plain water to lift the soap, then let it dry flat and away from any heat source. Never put it in a tumble dryer, and never hang it over a radiator — heat is what makes the coating go stiff and shiny.
If the care label on your garment says otherwise, follow the label. The Monroe Blazer carries its own instructions on the inside seam, and they take precedence over any general advice, including this.
What is the downside of faux leather?
Two things, and it is worth naming them plainly. The first is breathability: the coating is a sealed surface, so it traps warmth and moisture in a way a woven fabric does not. That makes a leather-look jacket excellent at cutting wind and poor at regulating temperature, which is why the layer underneath matters more than it would under a wool coat.
The second is that the damage is permanent. A wool coat that has been treated badly can be brushed, steamed and rescued. A faux leather coating that has cracked cannot be repaired — there is no way to re-bond it. This is the whole reason prevention is worth the small effort.
The upside is the reason people buy it anyway: it is light. A leather-look jacket weighs a fraction of what the real thing does, which makes it wearable over a knit without the shoulders feeling loaded.
How long does a faux leather jacket typically last?
Well-treated, several years of regular autumn wear. Badly treated, a single season. The variable is almost entirely storage and creasing rather than how often you wear it.
Three habits account for most of the difference. Hang it on a broad or padded hanger, never a wire one — a thin hanger concentrates all the weight on two points and the coating eventually splits there. Give it space in the wardrobe, because pressure from garments either side sets permanent fold lines. And do not fold it into a drawer or a suitcase for months; a fold in faux leather becomes a crack.
The same logic applies to other leather-look pieces. The Classic Leather Boots keep their shape far longer stored upright than collapsed on their sides, and The Mason Cap should be stored crown-up rather than flattened.
What is a good protectant for faux leather?
Less than you would think, and the honest answer is that most of what is sold for real leather is wrong for this. Wax and oil-based conditioners are formulated to feed a natural hide. Faux leather has nothing to feed, and those products sit on the surface, attract dust and leave the finish tacky.
If you use anything, use a water-based vinyl or synthetic-leather conditioner, sparingly, and test it first on an inside hem where nobody will see the result. In most cases the better protectant is simply a dry cloth: wipe the jacket down when you take it off, so that dust and rain marks do not sit on the surface until next time.
The layer underneath does half the work
Because the coating does not breathe, what you wear beneath a leather-look jacket decides whether it is comfortable. A fine-gauge knit with some texture handles this better than a smooth synthetic base layer, because it moves moisture away from the skin and does not cling.
The Vesper Sweater and The Willow Zip Knit both sit well under a blazer without adding bulk at the shoulder, and the half-zip on the latter gives you a way to vent when a sealed outer layer gets warm indoors.
One caution worth repeating: if the jacket is snug over the knit, you will flex the coating at the elbow every time you bend your arm, and that is precisely where cracking starts. Sizing it correctly is a care decision as much as a fit one — see should you size up or down for a jacket. For shells and nylon pieces the rules are different again; how to wash a nylon jacket covers those. Short answers to questions like this one are collected on Style Answers.