The Essential Men’s Leather Jacket Guide: 12 Of The Best Brands And Jacket Styles (Updated 2022)
Few items of menswear come packaged with as much attitude, heritage or unfiltered masculinity as a leather jacket. Synonymous with punks and pilots, motorcycles and Marlon Brando, the leather jacket is high-testosterone menswear, but it’s also a surprisingly versatile classic. No well-edited wardrobe is complete without one.
Men have been wearing hides and skins since our knuckles stopped skimming the floor, but the men’s leather jacket as we know it today came to prominence in the early 1900s. Brown leather flight jackets were worn by the early aviators and the military, most notably the German Air Force in World War I.
The first contemporary-looking style arrived in 1928. A Manhattan raincoat maker, Irving Schott, designed a motorcycle jacket for Harley Davidson. Dubbed the ‘Perfecto,’ after his favorite cigar, this leather jacket was built to protect riders from the elements and accidents. During World War II the flight jacket became known as the bomber and was prized for its warmth having been designed for wear in open cockpits.
Between then and now, leather jackets have appeared everywhere from in cult flick The Wild One to on the backs of the Sex Pistols. It’s standard-issue for mavericks, scoundrels and sex symbols.
Today, the garment is likely to be one of the most expensive additions to a wardrobe, so don’t be a rebel without a clue – make a shrewd purchase. If for no other reason, a good leather jacket is one of the few long-term relationships you’ll have in fashion. They’re built to last, age as you do and pair with more items than you might expect. So, if you don’t consider Danny Zuko a style icon, that’s fine – there are other ways to wear it that don’t include leather pants.
Our Top Brands Best Overall Leather Jacket:
Belstaff Best Leather Motorcycle Jackets:
Cromford Best Colorful Leather Jacket:
The Jacket Maker Best US-Made Leather Jackets:
Schott NYC Best Grunge Leather Jackets:
AllSaints Best Affordable Leather Jackets:
H&M Best Minimalist Leather Jackets:
Saint Laurent Best Leather Bomber Jackets:
Zara Best Maximalist Leather Jackets:
Acne Studios Best Eco-friendly Leather Jackets:
The Real McCoy’s
