How to wear a leather jacket and not look like Jeff Bezos

A couple of weeks ago, on a rainy afternoon in Milan, the young British actor Harris Dickinson – who stars opposite Nicole Kidman in the hit film Babygirl – arrived at Prada’s autumn/winter menswear show – staged across three storeys on an enormous custom-built scaffold – wearing a sleek, Seventies-style, cracked black leather jacket over a simple tonal sweater.

Perhaps Dickinson was channelling his cougar-hunting character in Babygirl, maybe he was serving modern-day Fonz. Either way, the actor’s turn single-handedly placed vintage-inspired leather jackets at the centre of the style discourse.

Well, almost single-handedly. Leather jackets in one form or another have been increasing in prevalence for a while now. But for every smart and polished Mr Dickinson, there’s a Jeff Bezos, who appeared recently in the kind of leather jacket associated with dads in middle-aged crisis mode; ill-fitting and boxy, worn with jeans and looking a little out of place. It’s a tricky item for a man to get right.

The new-vintage leather trend continued at cult brands Our Legacy and The Frankie Shop, with the former showing ultra-fine black leather overshirts, distressed to reveal patches of the natural hide beneath. The latter, as part of its collaboration with Danish label Samsøe Samsøe, unveiled weathered grey lambskin shirt jackets – crafted with the ease of pyjamas, but built with the durability of overalls.

“Leather coats and jackets are making a strong comeback for 2025, with customer searches on Mr Porter up by 144 per cent over the past three months,” says Daniel Todd, Mr Porter’s buying director. “In particular, styles from Enfants Riches Déprimés, Tom Ford and Celine Homme have been performing exceptionally well.”

The most recent round of menswear shows, which took place in Milan and Paris throughout January, were awash with leather jackets, too – from the fondle-friendly lambskin bombers and bikers shown at Auralee and Emporio Armani to the worn-in leather blazers and overshirts in collections from Lemaire and Louis Vuitton.

“Our most popular leather style is a suede overshirt inspired by Alain Delon in the film Plein Soleil,” says Isabel Ettedgui, owner of the British luxury label Connolly. “The double-faced collar and pale, horn-engraved buttons highlight the super-soft natural tan suede. Its semi-fitted shape means it can be layered over fine knits and light tees, or worn bare-chested like Alain.”

A world away from the shiny, boxy dad jackets sported by the likes of Jeff Bezos and his technocratic cronies, the new wave of leather jackets exudes a quiet ease. Less hard-edged embodiment of the patriarchy, more sensitive, soft-boy-with-an-Mr Porter-account. Think a doe-eyed Marlon Brando leaning against his Harley in The Wild One, or James Dean, cigarette in hand, brooding in an oversized Schott Perfecto.

Back then, leather jackets were symbols of rebellion – a sartorial middle finger to the system. Today, they feel more like armour against it: soft, lived-in second skins that offer protection and comfort in equal measure. Or maybe it’s the sense of nostalgia such styles evoke – harking back to a simpler time when AI wasn’t coming for our jobs, and Elon Musk was still in short trousers.

“Imagine a leather jacket and you likely picture a classic biker, with diagonal zip detailing: a little uncool, a little bit dad, a little bit early 2000s Topman,” says style director of Gentleman’s Journal Zak Maoui. “But leather jackets are having a resurgence, with new styles such as thick blousons, minimalist bombers and razor-sharp blazers bringing a formerly naff piece of outerwear to the fore. See Timothée Chalamet in his Chanel leather jacket.”

David Beckham – who famously wore matching biker leathers alongside his wife Victoria to a Versace party in the late Nineties – revisited leather last winter but made it infinitely more luxe this time around, wearing a sleek ‘shacket’ in black leather.

Personally, the nostalgic tone of today’s leather jackets takes me back to a family trip to Florence in 2003, when my dad insisted on buying me my first. For him, it was a rite of passage – a hand off of masculine style from one generation to the next. For me, wearing that buffed black leather biker with too-big suede Gucci loafers and Maharishi parachute pants felt like I’d cracked the code of cool. I’d kill to still have that jacket now – a tangible memory stitched into leather – which would look as good as anything I could hope to buy brand new.

So, how do you wear your new nostalgia-tinged leather piece without tipping into technocrat territory? Whether it’s an ultra-soft brown bomber from Studio Nicholson, a sharp leather blazer from Prada or Bally, or a perfect vintage find (I’ve got my eye on an old Emporio Armani bomber-blazer on Vinted), the key is to approach your look with ease. Channel Harris Dickinson’s air of close-cut nonchalance and treat your new jacket as an everyday outer layer that just happens to be made from leather.

“Aged leather jackets that are easy for layering are such a staple piece,” agrees GQ’s fashion editor Angelo Mitakos. “When wearing yours, keep things simple by teaming it with some good fitted jeans, a classic Sunspel T-shirt, and a leather belt finished with some silver hardware.”

Read more of Teo van den Broeke’s writing at The Closet on Substack