The enduring appeal of the leather jacket

When I was thirteen my friends and I became heavily invested in the coming of age drama Skins, particularly the enigmatic, self-destructive Effy. 

So many things about Effy blew our all-girls school minds. But mostly her wanton lack of regard for all rules and authority and, of course, her skimpy array of clothes that my mother would’ve balked at in horror. But, always slung across her shoulders, as she puffed on a cigarette, was a gloriously battered leather biker jacket.

I knew immediately, I needed one too.

The black, leather biker jacket came to represent so much more than just a piece of clothing, to my adolescent alcopop-addled mind it was the very essence of cool.

Now, well over a decade later I still confidently maintain this theory. Just take one look at any picture of Kate Moss and Johnny Depp cruising around in their 90s leathers, rolled cigarettes hanging out of mouths and tell me every pore of your being doesn’t ache to be them in that exact moment?

Obviously, model looks and apparent fairytale romance aside, there is something raw, unruly and defiant in the jacket’s cut and connotation that could even make an estate agent seem dangerous.

As with many of the world’s greatest designs, the iconic biker jacket was borne out of pure practicality. Irving Schott, founder of the New York outerwear company Schott Bros, designed the first and most replicated incarnation of the zipped biker jacket in 1928. Buttoned up leather coats already existed but Schott’s design incorporated a belted front and an asymmetrical zip that created a seal where no air could pass through, allowing motorcyclists to lean over their bikes more comfortably. Schott named the jacket Perfecto, after his favourite cigar. 

The Perfecto jacket soon became a staple of the “greaser” sub culture that was popular in 1950s America among gangs of disaffected youths. Their typically lower-class background and penchant for anarchic rock and roll music led to a widespread moral panic across conservative America and the leather jacket became a symbol of dissidence and youthful anarchy.

The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando as an angsty but gorgeous motorcycle gang-member, successfully romanticised the greaser aesthetic and gave birth to a slew of copy-cat ‘bad boy’ figures in Hollywood movies, such as Mad Max, Danny Zuko, Maverick in Top Gun, Brad Pitt in Fight club, T-800 in Terminator.

The Perfecto jacket turned 80 last year and, according to a spokesperson for Schott Bros, its popularity has remained stable for the best part of a century. Styles have altered slightly over the decades, in the 1980s Michael Jackson’s Thriller video popularised a slightly baggier fit around the shoulders and in the ’90s Brit pop stars spearheaded a tan style.

Nowadays cheap alternatives to leather have made the jacket more accessible to the average consumer, although according to the Schott Bros representative it faced a rare surge of competition last year with the popularity of the bomber jacket.

Thanks to its commercial success the leather jacket has lost some of its violent and rebellious connotations but its timeless appeal remains unmatched. You don’t need to go to Camden market to see people of every age, gender and background with a leather jacket swathed across their shoulders, unaware that they themselves are playing a tiny role in the jacket’s glamorous and enduring legacy.

Click through the gallery above to see the humble leather jacket in all its fabulous iterations.