Synthetic materials often win on day-one appearance and lose steadily from there, while natural materials tend to do the opposite.
How Synthetics Age
Laminate chips, plastic yellows, and synthetic fabric pills, all changes that read as damage rather than character, with no graceful version of the wear.
How Natural Materials Age
Solid pinewood, as in the Kosho Bench, develops a deepening patina, marks that blend into the material rather than standing out against it.
The Honest Verdict
This isn't sentimentality, it's a structural difference in how the two material types respond to wear. Natural materials were built by nature to weather gracefully, synthetics generally weren't.
