COLLECTING FASHION TRENDS: THE BLACK LEATHER JACKET

                                                      HAPPY FALL!

            THE BLACK LEATHER JACKET…..ALWAYS CLASSIC ALWAYS NEW

Repost with permission from the Randolph Street Market blog.  A reminder the last outdoor vendor portion of this year round market is Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29, 2019.  Do go it is chocked full of treasures in vintage clothing and everything else under the sun!

From “Greasers” to high fashion and everything in between, let’s look at where the leather jacket began and see it developed into a fashion wardrobe classic.
Obviously leather has been with us for centuries but the jacket we are featuring today we are tracing back to “modern” history.

The brown leather jacket made its entrance on the scene on the aviators of World War I.

Then again for the air women and men as the Bomber jacket for WWII.

In 1928 Irving Schott designs the first motorcycle jacket and sells it for $5.50 at the Harley Davidson store in New York. He named it after his favorite cigar, The Perfecto. And perfect it was, on and off motorcycles.

In 1953 The Wild One starred a sexy Marlon Brando in a classic leather motorcycle jacket. Often the jacket became its own character.

And other stars jumped on the bike, so to speak, definitely defying the norm and defining the person on and off the screen…James Dean

Steve McQueen…..

Tom Cruise….

Elvis, of course…..

Henry Winkler before he was The Fonz (notice Stallone) in The Lords of Flatbush…

And as Fonzie….

And then there was Grease…..(my era!)

The Beatles before suits and Ringo….

The English Punks and, of course Sid and Nancy and The Sex Pistols…

The one and only Michael Jackson…

 

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From the outrageous to….David Beckham….

And so many more celebrities….
Three blonds….Madonna, Glenn, Lady Gaga…..who wears it best, I’ll leave it to you…

Haute Couture, why not….a bit of Schiaparelli…

Some embellished jackets…they have come a long way baby, how shall you embellish your Randolph Street Market Finds…..so many options…here are a few suggestions…

 

I must admit my favorite of the bunch, although the feathered piece or hand painted or……

 

Let’s look at a few ways to style and update your vintage jacket…..

I’m obsessed with this on Elizabeth Moss…

 

Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait…a recent Retrospective at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

For your own research some books (you knew I would have some suggestions didn’t you!)

The one and only Ralph Lauren who exemplifies “Always Classic Always New”

And your blogger in one of four black leather jackets, a motorcycle piece needs to be added if only to embellish!!!!! RSM here I come!!

All photos with the exception of the one of me, from Pinterest photos credits unknown.