Things To Consider Before Purchasing A Leather Jacket
Size
Like all men’s upper body clothing, choosing the right leather jacket size should be determined by your personal chest measurements in inches.
Once you know your measurements, it’s always important to check the size guide of your chosen brand to ensure you know what your measurements equate to in their sizes.
In general, sizes start at around a 34 inch chest (usually classed as XS) and go up in increments of 2 inches (S = 36 inches, M = 38 inches etc.). However these differ from brand to brand.
Style
There is no one single style of leather jacket and due to the popularity of the material many contemporary jacket styles now boast leather versions, allowing you to adapt leather into a more contemporary look.
Browse for jacket styles that you like such as bomber, coach, harrington and more, and then see whether they are available in leather form.
Classic styles also include vintage motorcycle jackets, racer jackets, field jackets and aviators which all have distinguishing features that may be a hit or a miss with your own taste.
Try and choose something which fits your personal style, age range or reflects current fashion to ensure that your leather jacket appears effortless and in the now as opposed to an outdated throwback.
Leather Material
Despite commonly being tanned cowhide, leather can actually come in a few forms the most common of which being lambskin, sheepskin and faux materials.
There are slight differences between each of these and knowing these contrasts may help you decide what type of leather jacket will best match your desired look.
Lambskin
The highest quality leather on the market, lambskin is unsurprisingly taken from a young bovine animal, where the result is a soft, silky and smooth texture with a very fine grain.
Due to this and the fact young bovine animals cannot provide much skin in the tanning process, it’s usually the most expensive leather when used in clothing.
Its cultivation still causes a lot of controversy though and some people aren’t keen on lambskin leather given the young age of the animal.
Sheepskin
Again, as you might have guessed, sheepskin leather comes from ovine animals, however these are taken from animals in maturity.
They tend to have a much more evident grain and texture than lambskin due to being more aged, but are still very fine and suitable for clothing.
Faux
Faux leather is becoming increasingly popular amongst customers in the same way faux fur has, allowing customers to get their hands on a genuine leather aesthetic that does not in any way use an animal’s actual skin.
Many materials such as PVC or polyester are used to create a synthetic product which replicates leather in both feel and appearance, allowing you to wear a leather jacket without a guilty or sickened conscience.