The question of what is and what isn’t in style rages a hot debate across the fashion world, from past to present. Who decides what is hot and what is not? How do we know the difference? In the world of leather, the question is slightly different. It is not so much a question of whether an individual style of women’s leather jacket is in vogue. It is more a question of women’s leather jackets as a style itself, and if it is in style now in its own unique form. Leather tends to occupy a niche of its own in the fashion industry and is judged differently from other materials.
With jackets made from fabrics like cotton/wool or man-made fibres like polyester (which in themselves can sometimes yoyo in and out of style) it is usually the style itself that determines if the garment is fashionable, or trendy, depending on which designs have been approved by the fashion houses in any particular year for each season. So, we may just have answered the question of who decides what is hot and what is not. And, as alluded to, fabrics are chosen according to the season and/or perhaps which of the many various fabrics might be in abundance or scarce.
Leather varies too, skins, and hides from different animals, thickness, weight, and durability, and in look and in feel too. However, in general, a leather jacket stands alone on the treehouse that is fashion. Of course, there are many varied styles of leather jackets for women. A leather blazer jacket is a classic style, and it offers such versatility in what it can worn with (practically anything) on which occasion it can be worn to. If we want to look at something bolder with more daring, a leather biker jacket makes those statements. It has evolved from its origins and transformed into modern and sophisticated, chic designs for women.
Leather trench coats, collarless leather, cropped leather jackets, long leather jackets. Anything it is possible to manufacture in the fabric world is easy to replicate in the world of leather, and it sits in the company of some of the finest, most prestigious names the fashion industry holds dear. One issue we haven’t yet covered is sustainability. This word is as important in the leather industry as it is elsewhere in the fashion world, and indeed other industries unrelated to fashion.
It is important too because to answer the question of whether a women’s leather jacket is still in style, such considerations as the environment and the manufacturing process play such a large part in determining the answer to the question.
Modern tanning methods have moved on. Vegetable tanning of hides and skins is far kinder to the outside world, and skins used in the design of women’s leather jackets, and of course men’s, are mainly sourced exclusively from the by product of the food industry. Small efforts of due diligence by the consumer can discover which companies do and do not abide by the necessary ethical practices. So, with that in mind, we have now attained that modern methods do not compromise style, and the style of a leather jacket does not compromise the planet.
The next consideration is simply fashion itself. There are periods in history when one trend, one style or another became the must have of its day. Leather itself has probably featured more, or less regularly, depending on the same discriminative, some might say discerning, factors. What is hot or not. But leather, and a women’s leather jacket has stood the test of time. It has escaped some of the restraints imposed by fleeting moments of favour enjoyed by one style or another, or a trend, a momentary buzz of something new. It rather holds its own as separate entity, a classic by virtue of its status, created by its uniqueness. It is simply on a shelf reserved for that special purchase, for that time in your life when only a certain something will do. Women’s leather jackets. Yes, they are still in style. They were never, ever out of style. A constant in the world of fashion. Who’d have thought it?