Double Helix — 10th Anniversary

Limited 10th Anniversary Model

Double Helix Falconer — Horse Queen Leather Riders Jacket

To mark ten years, Double Helix developed a new leather. Horse Queen is their most considered material to date: a 2.0mm vegetable-tanned horsehide sourced specifically from adult mares, finished with nothing but wax on its surface. No coating. No pigment. The Falconer riders jacket is the first garment made from it.

This is a limited anniversary run. The jacket will not be produced again in the same form.

+ Double Helix and the Horse

Double Helix have spent a decade making leather goods and footwear in Japan, working with some of the most technically demanding hides available. Their shoes are built on horse stripe leather taken from the waist of the horse and horse butt from the back and hip. The latter, when compressed and polished to a high density, produces cordovan: the shell leather that sits at the top of the shoemaking hierarchy.

Working with horsehide across different cuts teaches you what each part of the animal does. How it behaves under lasting. How it responds to polishing. What a surface looks like when it is built up over years rather than applied in a single finishing step. Double Helix have been studying this for ten years.

Horse Queen is the result. It is not a variation on what they already use. It draws on a different selection of the hide, the waist and back, chosen specifically for the natural texture that develops in that area. Where horse butt is prized for its uniformity and density, Horse Queen is selected for its character. This is leather that arrives with a surface already in conversation with itself.

Horse Queen hide — adult mare, waist and back selection

Construction details

+ The Falconer

Waldes zipper
A name trusted in quality leather goods for over a century. Heavy, smooth, and appropriate to a jacket made without compromise.

Solid brass buckle
Uncoated. It will develop a patina alongside the leather with neither component finished against aging.

Horse Stripe grain panel detailing
A reference to Double Helix's existing material vocabulary. The contrasting panel introduces a second hide surface from the horse stripe cut, used in their footwear range.

Exposed Cordovan layer inside the D pocket
An interior detail for the wearer only. The pocket reveals a strip of finished cordovan: the shell leather at the centre of Double Helix's shoe construction.

No surface coating or pigment
The leather is left open to age without interference. What the Falconer becomes over time is determined by the wearer, not the finish.

The Falconer — Double Helix, Japan

+ Horse Queen: The Leather

Horsehide has always been valued for its density and resistance. It is tighter-grained than cowhide, more resilient against abrasion, and ages differently.The surface changes with more precision, building character rather than simply wearing down. Horse Queen inherits all of that, then adds its own conditions.

The leather is vegetable-tanned and heavily oiled before finishing. At 2.0mm average thickness, it sits in the range used for quality jacket leather. It's thick enough to hold structure, supple enough to move. The wax surface treatment adds a measure of protection without sealing the hide. There is no barrier between the leather and the world it enters.

What makes Horse Queen unusual is the selection. Adult mares develop visible wrinkles across the row hide. It's a surface texture that forms before the tanner has done anything to it. After soaking and drying during preparation, the hide shrinks to roughly half its original size. What remains is dense, naturally textured and unlike most horsehide jackets, immediately soft. There is no extended break-in required. The jacket moves with the body from the first day.

Horse Queen surface — vegetable-tanned, wax finish, no coating

+ Aging, Care, and Long-term Ownership

A leather with no surface coating ages without a fixed ceiling. Horse Queen will take on a patina specific to the person wearing it, where it bends, where it catches light, where it is handled most. The initial wax finish means the early months will register handling quickly. Over time the leather develops varying shades of black and a deepening lustre that no factory process replicates.

Care should be minimal and appropriate to vegetable-tanned leather. Wipe down with a clean dry cloth after heavy wear. Do not expose the jacket to prolonged rain without allowing it to dry slowly and naturally away from heat.

Storage matters more than most riders jacket owners account for. A wide hanger preserves the shoulder line. Keeping it in a breathable garment bag, away from direct sunlight, will slow any uneven surface development. Horsehide tolerates neglect better than most materials but the Falconer will reward attention in the early years when the leather is forming its character.

Double Helix

10 items

Jackets & Outerwear

50 items

Footwear

50 items

Accessories

27 items

Shirts

48 items

+ A 10-Year Statement

Double Helix have spent ten years developing an understanding of how leather behaves across different cuts, animals, and tanning methods. They know how a hide ages from the inside as shoemakers and leather goods makers, they handle material for years after the point of sale. That accumulation of knowledge has a direction.

Horse Queen is the result of asking what leather you would develop when you already know what all the others do. Not a better version of something existing but something made for a purpose that did not previously exist in their range: a garment leather, made with the same technical discipline applied to their footwear.

The Falconer is limited to the anniversary run. Once made, it will not be repeated in the same form. What it represents, a decade of material knowledge applied to a single jacket is part of what the garment carries forward.

+ Frequently Asked Questions

Horse Queen is a vegetable-tanned horsehide developed by Double Helix for their 10th anniversary. Sourced from adult mares and selected from the waist and back of the hide, it is finished with wax only — no coating, no pigment. At 2.0mm average thickness, it is a dense but immediately supple leather that develops varying shades of black and a deep lustre with wear.

Yes. The Falconer is a 10th anniversary model and will not be produced again in the same form once the anniversary run is complete. Horse Queen leather itself is a new material — this is the first garment made from it.

No. Unlike most horsehide jackets, which can feel stiff for months, Horse Queen leather is soft and supple immediately. The soaking and drying process during tanning results in a dense but flexible hide that moves with the body from the first wear.

The Falconer uses a Waldes zipper and a solid brass buckle, both uncoated. It features Horse Stripe grain panel detailing — a reference to Double Helix's footwear leathers — and an exposed Cordovan layer on the interior of the D pocket.

Wipe with a clean dry cloth after heavy wear. Condition occasionally with a pure leather balm or natural wax product suitable for vegetable-tanned leather. Avoid conditioners containing silicone or synthetic compounds. Allow the jacket to dry naturally if it gets wet — keep it away from direct heat. Store on a wide hanger.

Yes. The Falconer is made in Japan, consistent with Double Helix's production standards across their footwear and leather goods range.

Double Helix's shoes use horse stripe leather (the waist of the horse) and horse butt (the back and hip). Horse Queen is a different selection — the waist and back — chosen for the natural texture that forms there. It is also finished differently: wax-only surface, no coating and no pigment. The result is a leather designed to develop openly over time rather than maintain a fixed appearance.

Horse Queen will develop a patina specific to the wearer — varying shades of black, a deepening lustre, and surface character determined by how and where the jacket is worn. There is no coating to crack or peel. The leather ages as the material itself, not as a finish applied over it.

The D-shaped chest pocket is a defining feature of the classic riders jacket form. On the Falconer, the interior of the D pocket features an exposed layer of Cordovan leather — the dense, finished shell leather that sits at the centre of Double Helix's shoe construction. It is a detail for the wearer rather than a visible design statement.