Meandering through Soho, I found myself in one of the many stores open on West Broadway. I decided to stop by the French Connection because I was feeling nostalgic for the good old days when I first moved to New York and it was the hot brand of the time. New Year's Day has a way of making people reflect on the past as we look forward to the future. Plus, the taste of duck was disturbing my stomach, I was afraid that I needed to be close to a clean toilet. So here I am at French Connection.
Browsing through the racks, I was immediately drawn to this brown bomber leather jacket. The distressed look, the knitted detail under the arms for ventilation and the superfluous flap on the back had me at hello. The perfect fit and the additional 50% off the sale price sealed the deal.
It reminded me of the one Indiana Jones wore through all of his adventures fighting belligerent natives and war loving Nazis. His jacket was fitted but loose. It hugged in all the right places but loose enough to let him reach for a whip, a lasso, a pistol and the crystal skull. He could wear it in the jungles of Sumatra, the wintry slopes of Antarctica and the hot sands of the Sahara desert; and he looked cool in each place because he had the jacket and a fedora.
Everyman has a leather jacket fantasy. Wether he wants the rock star leather, the biker look or the Princeton Professor of Archaeology, we all equate the cool guy look with leather. Maybe owning the perfect jacket makes working in an office instead of an ancient Arab temple looking for a holy chalice less banal. So if you have the same luck of finding your perfect leather jacket, here are some basic rules to follow.
YES
Aside from picking your leather idol, you should try to invest on the real thing. As a carnivore, I believe in using all of the animal. I eat its loins, its tongue, tail etc. So wearing it's softest possible skin is fine by me. Lambskin is my favorite, bovine can be a little heavy but still cool and exotic leathers takes your look into Italian Guido territory...but if that's your look, then to each his own. Just own it.
NO
Do not buy a leather jacket that doesn't fit. You might as well grab that wad of cash and throw it into the wind. Just remember that leather jackets should fit like a glove. It should be snug but loose enough to allow your joints to bend.
MAYBE
You're a vegan and you can't wear leather. But even the polyblend jacket should still fit snug. Maybe you can spray it with that leather jacket smell and go out on your own green organic adventure.
See you in the jungles.
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