My neighbor asked me if leather jackets were “still a thing” last month or if he’d “show up to the wedding afterparty and realize everyone else peaked in 2014.” Fair question. I own six of them having bought my first in 2016. That’s ridiculous considering I live in Chicago which means I need a functional coat for half the year instead of something hipstery that lets you feel the wind whip across a paper thin barrier of cow carcass. Six jackets. I could probably open a store if I wanted to only sell six jackets, but a small very cool one.
To answer his question though first requires me to break the question itself: leather jackets don’t trend like cargo pants or high top sneakers. On.
Off. Lights out. It’s never been that simple, and what *does* happen is far more fascinating and, truthfully, more useful if you’re about to spend 400 bucks on one.
The Jacket Didn’t Go Anywhere, Just The Noise Around It Did
Look at photos from 20 years ago, 50 years ago, whatever you got there is Marlon Brando rocking a leather jacket. It’s just a constant. When your uncle wore one to a barbecue in 1991, he wasn’t trying something trendy, he was wearing a jacket. Sure, it fluctuates in perceived popularity, but unlike jeans jackets or chambray, leather just doesn’t quit.
Styles will come and go, metal studs will be sewn onto it and then forgotten about, but the real jacket? The plain leather jacket, fitted, no nonsense jacket isn’t going anywhere. What changes is how loud it gets. Around 2017 I bought a moto jacket so littered with studs and buckles I set off the metal detectors at the courthouse when I tried to swear in. I’m not exaggerating. Security guard looked at me like I was smuggling a goddamn toaster into his courthouse.
The guy helping me at the shop said that’s how it’s meant to be worn now. Touching metal objects will set it off, I should have listened.
But back to my point. That specific jacket, that trendy version with all the bells and whistles attached to it, that trend fades. What you’re really looking at is whether a plain leather jacket is trendy. It’s not. The jacket I bought because of all that metal hobby Lobby priced me out of was gone within a year. Bought my uncle’s old black one instead, still wear it today.
So when people ask me if leather jackets are in style, what they’re really asking is if the extreme version is cool right now and that’s a valid question. But I don’t think it is. In fact I think that jackets like the courthouse conquest are cooling down. What’s actually popular are the plain ones. Just your straightforward leather jacket, black, fitted, maybe one zip.
What I Think Is Coming & What I’ll Fight You On
Unpopular opinion coming first: those oversized leather jackets everyone bought last year/for the past few years? Because it looked cool on a 6’0 model who can pull off standing very still and not looking awkward? Those will age badly, and not because oversized isn’t flattering, it’s because most people who buy them don’t have the shoulder build to fill that extra room and it just looks like…a jacket that doesn’t fit you. It doesn’t read “style choice.” I fell into this trap myself upgrading to a size bigger because that’s “how its meant to be worn now,” and wore it maybe four times. Gave it to my older brother whose shoulders actually fill it out and doesn’t look like he stole his father’s jacket. On me, it looked like I raided his closet.
What I will not hedge on is the plain leather jacket, fitted to your body. It’s not going anywhere, and anyone who tells you “wait, its going to be on sale again soon!” is just trying to stall you into never buying one. Trust me. There is no “soon” when it comes to leather jackets that fits into thats trend rotation. It still works with the same exact thing its always worked with; A plain t-shirt, some dark jeans, maybe a hoodie under it if you’re doing the Chicago-specific version of spring, which is really winter just with less snow.
The jacket isn’t a clothing item you buy because it matches your sweatshirt from Lowe’s, it’s something to invest in. Sure it’ll get worse with wear, eventually, but no one buys a leather jacket and expects to wear it two months. And please, for the love of everything good in this world, don’t believe some sales associate when they tell you “Oh we just got this in, it’s how its meant to be worn now.” They’re wrong.
Always have been.
The only issue I do have, and it’s not really with leather jackets, it’s with how cheap leather quality has gotten at prices where you’d expect it to be high. I don’t care if something says it’s genuine leather on the website. If the leather is so thin it stiffies immediately after you buy it, or it cracks at the elbows when you bend them because you’re not supposed to be standing still while wearing a leather jacket, then it’s not genuine enough to spend your money on. I had one that cracked along the seam after eight months of normal wear living, not abusing the jacket, just wearing the fuck out of it. I emailed the company (Tiny Jacket Company I loved and will now never buy from again), and they…sent me a discount code for 15% off my NEXT purchase.
Yup. As in the jacket that ripped on me wasn’t eligible for the 15% off I was offered as a “thank you for your patronage.” I did not take the code. Instead I took it to a cobbler who stitched it back up for 30 bucks. told me the leather was “good as a wallet, not for clothing.” and has been haunting me ever since.
TLDR; Leather jackets don’t trend, how people talk about them do. Ignore that noise.
Marcus started the menswear section after getting fed up with coverage that called a two hundred and fifty pound hoodie an easy Tuesday buy. Based in London, he writes about pricing, returns policies and what brands actually deliver.
