The bad old associations of leather jackets with Hells Angels, greasers etc are long gone, but somehow they still give out the wrong message for men. I don't know what it is, do they make the wearer appear as if they are trying to look hard or intimidating? I've got a couple of Schott jackets, a tan A2 copy and a black leather pea coat, a disastrous buy that I keep meaning to put on ebay. Somehow I never feel quite right in either of them.
There are many classic leather items out there, particularly flight jackets and some vintage ones command huge prices. But they don't seem to cut it as an Ivy thing, why not?
Or have I got it wrong?
I agree, I've never taken to leather jackets and maybe its because I had a particularly vile neo-nazi sympathizer as a maths teacher who insisted on wearing one in all of his lessons, inbetween lunch sessions down at the local boozer. I'm a big fan of Buzz Ricksons and Eastman Leather too, but never touch any of their leather jackets.
I've done the brown A2 "bomber jacket" thing. Not into any more. Never into the motorcycle jacket look, but I like a plain , no bells and whistles, black leather jacket that hits a little lower than the waist. I wish I could find a picture I saw of Monty Clift in one and a white turtleneck, looked good.
I have 4, including black and brown soft nappa leather bomber jackets that I wear on aircraft with zippered pockets that I put stuff in when going through security. On the plane, I just roll them up and stick them under the seat. They come to no harm and as long as you stick them on a proper hanger after the flight they regain perfect shape the way good shoes do after they've been on the right shoe trees for a couple of days.
I like the idea of leather, the simpler the better, really. I got my self a goat skin Harrington from O'Connells recently that is bedding in just nicely:
http://shop.oconnellsclothing.com/popup.php?cPath=http://shop.oconnellsclothing.com/images/products/1286374679.jpg
I've also fancied a leather 'jacket' (not bomber', for some time-not seen the right one yet, though (maybe a cordovan colour)
Kind regards
BM
I might be stepping into a massive generalisation but I can't think of leather being used much in British clothing apart from accessories. You just don't think of leather jackets when you think UK, but with the US you do, and Spain and Italy. A touch of the Jonny Foreigner about them?
It would be a patchwork jacket if it was made from cordovan, the part of the hide that makes cordovan is quite small.
Last edited by Big Mark (2012-03-09 13:47:39)
Yesterday we wandered into Lewis Leathers just off Tottenham Court Road where I tried on a few leather jackets. The quality v price compared very favourably with what I have seen elsewhere and the option for limited customising for £30 seemed very reasonable. But I couldn’t get excited about them. I still feel much the same about leather jackets as when I started this thread in 2012, perhaps more so. Happy to wear them on a motorcycle but other than that I just don’t feel right in a leather jacket.
I’ve still got a US made Schott G2 flight jacket that I bought in Boston about 15 years ago. It’s ideal for driving in our old SAAB with the roof down (fur collar attached) and having aged a bit it looks great, a lot better than most of the leather jackets I see in shops, but it it only comes out a couple of times a year. I should get rid of it really, but I know I would never get another one like it plus I have fond memories of buying it. Strangely, its a treasured item.
But there’s something about leather jackets that just doesn’t work for me, anyone feel the same, or differently?
There is an age limit for wearing leather jackets.
The leather jacket can, under certain circumstances, be a source of wry amusement.
KingstonIan is perfectly correct. The upper age limit is about twelve.
I own a Schott in black lambskin. Don’t know what model it is but closest to what they now call a delivery jacket.
Brought during a very brief flirtation with some kind of workwear style. I wore it with turned up jeans, boots and a newsboy cap a lot for one season. Then never again. The whole lot together just made too much of a statement. Probably ‘I’d like to be Arthur Fonzarelli’.
Also I found it to be one of the least practical jackets I ever had. Not warm enough in winter but absorbed the heat like a bastard whenever the sun showed itself.
Consigned to the very back of the cupboard under the stairs.
Pleased to say my remaining leather jacket, ( Redskins flight jacket), bought about 35 yrs ago, ( not worn for 15-20 yrs), recently sold on ebay after sitting on there for over 2 years, very nice jacket and of it's time but Kingston1an is 100% correct you can be too old to wear them, ( which I am, along with jeans),
I have a lovely Golden Bear G9 leather jacket bought from Russell St 30 odd years ago.
Not been worn for donkeys years but if I was to wear it I'd rather have piss take and ridicule than to sell it on eBay to some chav for didley squat.
I have a very tidy Golden Bear tan leather baseball jacket, am I too old for it - hmmm, dunno?
I think it still looks good, I only bought it during first lockdown - the full leather option is a rarity esp. on these shores. Worn it with trousers and denim (not chinos - wrong colour) and will try with my OG-107's when the weather picks up, with a sweat under neat etc.
I also have a black cafe racer one from many years ago, but that's just in storage - was going to sell it but it's a jacket I wore on a special night with the wife who didn't want me to get rid.
^ Small wonder they call you Tom-Is-Kinky.
Leather jackets were for many years considered the height of cool by a large number of males, ranging from rockers and 50s fans to the fashion forward and gangsters. Now they generally look dated if not passé, although if the jacket is a good one then associations be damned I suppose. I never had one back then so I certainly won't start now.
I wore one in 1978. I had ROCKERS LAMF painted on the back just to piss off the local 'Mods'. It was a childish thing to do but my heart was then (and still is) with Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and the rest. I bought the jacket from a biker who'd had a spill whilst wearing it so it looked pretty well worn-in, to put it mildly. Heaven knows what happened to it. I probably traded it for a couple of packets of Lucky Strike. Shortly after I began reading the French existentialists and American beats and staying home nights.
Two years previously I hung out (and washed up) at a dodgy club: rock on a Thursday, Northern Soul on a Friday. The denim and leather jacket with fringes mob were out in force on the Thursday, doing their silly dances whilst slurping brown ale from plastic glasses. The soul boys often wore long leather coats, handy for hiding the odd shotgun. Our bouncer, Mr. Millward, was shot one Friday night.
The club was 'Cleopatra's' BTW (better known as 'Cleo's', formerly 'Clouds'). Some big names appeared there, including - local legend has it - Little Stevie Wonder. It was a bit dismal and shabby by '76. Yet, judging by a number of comments on FB, a lot of people have fond memories of it.
The 1950s is quite possibly my favourite decade for music (although the 1940s might beat it) - but neither Vincent nor Cochran have ever done anything for me. Mod for life. I'm sure I have plenty of R&B from the same era that would pass muster with the leather jacket and quiff brigade though. Maybe my rudimentary lindy hop skills would even be deemed acceptable on one of their dancefloors.
Incidentally there is a story/legend/myth that a mod went on RSG in a full length leather overcoat, and when they played Jr Walker's Shotgun he revealed that he had in fact brought a shotgun with him. (Jr Walker is the only early to mid 60s Tamla artist I would listen to now incidentally. The Temps from about 67 were pretty good though. And of course Marvin got pretty funky.)
Strangely enough for a life long mod, I always had a sneaking admiration for the perfecto. Not so much on rockers/bikers, or even Brando - but it worked well as early British punk gear. And a bit later on when people were wearing them with one size too big, well worn big E Levi’s and DM shoes or converse. I think that was a fairly short lived thing and only worked for ‘the kids’. I couldn’t go anywhere near one as a fifty year old dad who doesn’t own a Harley
Great story on line somewhere regarding ‘Buttons’ who went on to be leader of the UK Hells Angels, as a young Ted, taking on a younger prissy mod wearing a full length leather which was flicked back to reveal a sawn off shotgun.
I have an unabated love of low, American culture: their music, movies from circa 1930 to 1949, Golden Age science fiction, comic-books, funny papers, even some of their (often atrocious) TV programmes. This has been with me as long as I can remember and will never leave me. I've just come back from the local Oxfam with a Bluegrass CD. When I say 'their music' I don't include the appalling Guns N'Roses, being played inside the shop, but anything from New Orleans or Delta Blues to Del Shannon and Roy Orbison.
We were all aware of 'Mod' music by the mid-1970s. Liked most of it. But I probably heard 'Summertime Blues' being performed by The Who before Eddie Cochran.
The irony is in the early days Mod didn't have a musical code until about 63-64 as R&B then Soul came to the fore (along with Brit pop/rock). Del Shannon was a Mod favourite, even the clean end of rock and roll like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison were adopted. It was about the new, rather than a code at first. New Orleans R&B was there from the start. Latin, a bit of the dancier/organ end of Modern Jazz (but far less than is envisaged), novelty dance crazes - it didn't need to coalesce for a while.
Last edited by An Unseen Scene (2022-02-24 04:51:57)