The Essential Men’s Leather Jacket Guide: 12 Of The Best Brands And Jacket Styles (Updated 2022)
Dusty brown shades offer an alternative to polished black, while the stand-out style is a straightforward biker jacket free from all those shiny, flashy zips and with a neat notched lapel pinched from tailoring.
11. Best Eco-friendly Leather Jackets: The Real McCoy’s
Cult Japanese vintage brand Real McCoy’s is heavily influenced by ’50s and ’60s Americana, so when it comes to its world-class range of leather jackets, think more Marlon Brando in 1953 classic The Wild One than anything crafted this century.
With the vintage style locked down, look out for exemplary touches from retro gold Talon zippers and a more eco-friendly vegetable tanning process to curved outer pocket stitching and a silky rayon lining.
12. Best Form-fitting Leather Jackets: Reiss
In keeping with its signature tailored aesthetic, premium label Reiss offers a range of close-fitting leather jackets like the bomber and racer that are cut as well as it suits.
Sitting at the high end of the high street, the increased price tags tend to be matched by a better quality of leather and stronger finishes on the zips and buttons than you find elsewhere.
Key Leather Jacket Styles
Biker Jacket
The bad boy of the outerwear world, the biker is a cropped leather jacket, usually in black, complete with studs and asymmetric zips. Originally worn, unsurprisingly, by motorcyclists, the asymmetric cut was designed as such to allow riders to lean over their bikes without the fastenings digging into the body.
The earliest examples featured a snug fit with a D-pocket and lapels designed to snap down or fold over each other and zip all the way up. A rugged garment, honed from goatskin, cowhide or horsehide, this is the style worn by the likes of Marlon Brando in the 1950s.
It’s largely a youthful, edgy style so is best worn with slim jeans, but it can (in the right office) be thrown over an Oxford shirt and knitted tie as a replacement for a blazer. Whichever you go for, always ensure whatever is underneath is lightweight, because this style should be cut close to the body.
