The best leather jackets – real or vegan – are the ones that you only have to buy once; that you can hang in your wardrobe knowing each time you take it out it’ll look just as new as the day you bought it, and that you can dress up or down.
The blanket ‘wear with everything’ statement is a cliché, we agree, but when it comes to leather jackets, nothing could be truer. Thrown over the shoulders of your party dress at a function, paired with your best jeans on the weekend, or styled as part of your smart-casual dress code at the office, leather jackets are the outerwear you’re either already obsessed with or are about to be.
Wondering how to style a leather jacket? We’ve got you.
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What are the top styles of leather jackets to buy?
1. The classic biker
Likely the first image that comes to mind when you think of a ‘leather jacket’ is the classic biker style motorcycle jacket. Created in the ’20s and made popular in the ’50s thanks to Hollywood actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean, leather biker jackets are usually shaped to a relaxed or oversized fit for that androgynous effect, but for a more modern style, look for slim silhouettes.
2. The leather bomber
Your best bomber jacket, but leather. Elasticated at the cuffs and hem, a leather bomber jacket creates the same shape as a puffer jacket but (most times) without the padding. They’re perfect for wearing atop knitwear due to their roomy nature.
3. The leather blazer
Want to wear a leather jacket to work but need it to be smarter than the usual offerings? Opt for a leather blazer – the cleaner-cut sister of the suede jackets you’ve seen everyone wearing recently. The two below from ALIGNE and ASOS DESIGN provide a flattering shape too, thanks to clever waist details.
4. The leather aviator
Not to be confused with a bomber jacket, which shares the same history, the aviator jacket (or flight jacket) was designed to keep pilots warm in open-cockpit planes during World War I, evolving from heavy leather with sheepskin/shearling linings to more streamlined designs in World War II. Today, we’ve seen everyone from Cara Delevingne to editors at fashion week wearing them.