Leather

Looking at the catwalks of S/S 2012, among smooth silk, soft chiffon and delicate lace, a fabric of less noble origins entertained us: leather. It certainly emerges as a must-have for next season, from Marc Jacobs’ fringed coat to Burberry’s turquoise trench, from Martin Margiela’s pencil skirt to Balmain’s hotpants, combined with chiffon at Chloe and contrasting silk at Bottega Veneta. Yet leather had to walk a long way before reaching haute couture, starting at the beginning of the Twentieth Century from specific working or leisure environments and gradually becoming a flag of outrageousness, until outrageous became chic.

Balmain S/S 2012

Long before being a rockers’ favourite, the tailor shop D. Lewis, LTD (now part of Lewis Leathers) was the first to customise motorcycle coats in 1897. The jacket appeared a decade later, and reached popularity in the 1920s, thanks to its resistance to time and cold wind. As early as the 1910s Dunhill and Harrod’s offered exclusive overcoats for motorcyclists and airplane pilots. Two World Wars helped to improve the technology of the material, which proved to be the most apt solution against high altitude cold and was eventually implied by ex-soldiers even after the conflicts end.

Leather as both uniform and motorcycle equipment was implied since the 1920s-1930s from policemen, who were allowed to wear them to ride Harley-Davidson or Indian motorcycles. But it wasn’t just the good policeman, the bad guy was wearing leather as well. After the Nazi, the bad reputation of the material was carried on by sadomasochists and fetishists, especially gay or lesbian, attracted by the erotic connotation of this second skin.

In the 1950s blue jeans and white ankle socks were considered alternative fashion. Since leather meant Hell’s Angels gangs, S&M and reminiscences of Nazi uniforms it’s easy to understand why the motorcycle jacket was so outrageous, and thus fascinating to teenagers, the new target market. From Marlon Brando in The Wild One, “full of alarming black-jacketed glamour”, to the schoolboys in Rebel Without A Cause, cinema and TV were asserting that leather was nonconformist. For the same reason it became a key element of a new music genre, loud, careless of social conventions and sexually explicit: rock’n’roll. Rockabilly singer Gene Vincent adopted the total look, then emulated by Elvis, creating the quintessential concert outfit for both rock stars and fans. Patti Smith, Jim Morrison and even the Beatles wore leather on and off the stage; Iggy Pop still does. Rock transformed from rock’n’roll to punk to hard rock to goth, but the core elements are still black leather and electric guitars.

Patti Smith in leather jacket (and nothing else)

In the late 1970s a rock subgenre became the soundtrack of the most rebellious of rebellion: punk. Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren sold garments inspired by fetish fashion, which appealed to the angry kids desirous to stand against society in any way possible. Particularly connotative was the black leather jacket covered with patches, zips, studs and spikes, a piece of the punk closet which survived the phenomenon itself. The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Clash lead the hordes of punks towards anarchy and self-destruction dressing the part of (anti)social demons in shiny black jackets.

Even more radical than displaying leather on stage was bringing it to catwalk. Yves Saint Laurent looked at the street for his A/W 1960  Beat Collection for Dior and his own A/W 1961 and the result of his research and creativity were green leather coats, buckskin ponchos and the infamous alligator jacket. Yves Saint Laurent looked at the street from the glamorous height of his salon, nevertheless the house of Dior deemed him too radical and dismissed him. However the 1960s revolutionary halo spread from Yves Saint Laurent and shaped leather into Courrèges’ red daisies on a white fur, Cardin combinations with metal and vinyl, Ungaro’s fluo creations, Paco Rabanne’s armour coats.

The last two decades of the Twentieth Century were a declaration of love for animal skin from mainstream fashion designers. In the 1980s Gianni Versace wrapped Diana Vreeland in black leather trousers, Thierry Mugler used it to disguise the body while Azzedine Alaїa saw it as a second skin. In the 1990s this material stimulated the imagination of enfants terribles like Miuccia Prada, Dolce&Gabbana and Jean Paul Gaultier, but it entered also the realms of elegance such as Valentino and Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld. In the Twenty-first Century visionaires like Galliano, McQueen and Viktor&Rolf moulded it into the shape of their dreams and now there are only a few designers who resist the temptation of leather.

John Galliano for Christian Dior A/W 2002/2003

The world evolves in two different directions: on the one hand it develops technologically, while on the other it researches the past century in prey to Retromania. Products belonging in our grandmas’ childhood will be displayed in extremely innovative shapes and fashion will follow this path, so be ready to wear a 1930s policeman jacket in neon animal prints and superlight material. You might be smiling at this image, exactly like Marlon Brando would be smiling at the thought that his rebel look has now become a classic. And it would be a tough, charming, sad smile.