Leather JacketsFrom the Catwalks to the Streets

Vivian Fernandes is a Masters student in Fashion Promotion and Imaging in the University for The Creative Arts. She graduated in Journalism in Brazil, where she was born, and came to England in order to do her Masters degree.

Interested in Street Style, she decided to write this trend report based on the leather jacket, that is an item that always appear on the catwalks, and has been fashionable since the 1950s, in the rebel era, with James Dean as an inspiration. This is also part of a work for graduation on this course. The proposal is write a trend report, and she decided to customise one particular grey leather jacket to hand in together, as part of the promotion of the product.

Why must you have a leather jacket?

It is a fashion item that is never out of the catwalks, and can be easily found and customized. It can combine with every kind of clothing, making the person who is wearing it be considered as stylish. It can also be made of any colour. A pink or white one can make a romantic style; black or brown, rocker or motorcycle; blue or silver, more stylish. The combination depends on the style of who is wearing it.

The other good point is the price, that can be accessible for everybody. It can be bought in a famous designer store, made in real leather, or even some synthetic material in a cheap store, known as pleather. Mainly the material that it is made of can make the price be lower or higher. Clearly the quality is not the same, but it can still compose a good outfit, and

The singer Demi Lovato wear romantic

clothing, and is using a leather jacket

INTERNET

Vivian Fernandes

anyone can be fashionable.

In this Autumn/Winter collection, 2014/2015 it appeared in catwalks of the London and Paris Fashion Week, but since the 1950s, people have been spotted wearing it in the streets. In the beginning, it was just for rebel people, but now everybody uses it.

How will the grey bomber customised pleather jacket be promoted?

It will be on display in front of the next Bread & Butter exhibition, that will be in Messe Berlin Airport Tempelhof (Germany), from 8th to 10th July. A customized grey pleather bomb jacket with hood, bought in a second-hand store, will have a patch with a QR Code in the bottom of the front part and many studs, pins and spikes. The person who takes the picture of the code, will be connected to a website with the information from this trend report.

The Bread & Butter is a trade fair, created in 2001 in Cologne, with many trend shows of some famous brands, as Topshop, H&M, Uniqlo, and others, and is a great opportunity for young designers to display their collections. The focus is Street and Urban Wear, and is a good meeting place for manufacturers and buyers of the textile industry.

For the exhibition, it is necessary to send to the Bread & Butter email (exhibitor@breadandbutter.com) an application with the material, as images of the jacket and the

trend report, explaining the reason for exhibiting it.

The QR Code can be found on some websites, and can be made for free by anyone in a simple way. People put their link or file into some proper website and download the code. The idea of making the QR code in a fabric is to show how is easy and simple it is to customize it and turn it into an interactive platform, to attract young people. To do it, the file will be uploaded into the digital publishing platform Issuu (issuu.com), and then the link of it will become the code.

This is the QR Code that will direct the person to the file

INTERNET

The proposal of the customised leather jacket is to show to young people how it is fashionable, and the aim is to sell it to the British brand Jaeger, and show that they can do the same to promote their future products.

Address:Messe Berlin Tempelhof AirportPlatz der Luftbrucke 5Berlin, Germany

VIVIAN FERNANDES

CostsBased in the idea of doing something stylish and cheap at the same time for young people,

the jacket was bought in a second-hand store for just £5. This way we can also do some charity place (in this case, was the Cancer Research UK).

The studs and spikes to customize it, was ordered online in the website Amazon.co.uk. The digital print for the QR Code was made in the University for the Creative Arts Epsom, by the technicians, and the price includes the fabric as well. Everything was stitched and customized by the student.

For exhibit it, will be necessary a mannequin, and will be used one lent by the University, for free. In the Bread & Butter, the exhibition will also be free. The total of costs is about £20.

Second-Hand Leather Jacket £5Studs x1000 £1

Spikes x100 + Delivery £6Digital Print + Fabric £8

Mannequin FreeTotal £20

As a must-have item, the leather jacket appeared on six catwalks this Fashion Week of the Autumn Winter collection. It was shown in the collections of Belstaff and Christopher Kane in London, Jean Paul Gaultier, Chanel and Junya Watanabe in Paris and Moschino in Milan. Last year, 2013, Saint Laurent had in his collection, four different models on his catwalk in Paris Fashion Week.

Leather JacketFrom the Catwalks to the Streets

Belstaff’s collection had more black outfits, such for women than for men, but the clothing are similar for both: black boots, leather jacket and skirt (troursers for men). The model of the jackets are similar to “The Perfecto”.

The Autum/Winter colour for Chistopher Kane’s woman jackets is black too. On his catwalk in London Fashion Week, he showed three different clothing using pleather, that looks like composing a rain style. These included one used with a jumpsuit and a dress code trouser, while the other one was used with

a skirt made by the same material; the other composition was the jacket with a skirt, and both had small holes, used with a pink t-shirt. He had some coats as well, and one of them was grey, and other, had fur inside. Specially this collection shows how the leather jacket can be used with many styles and still be feminine.

Part of Jean Paul Gaultier’s collection was based on punk. With leather, tartan and flags, he dressed all the models, even children with Mohican hair, dark make up, studs and spikes, and they showed punk attitude. As in Christopher Kane’s

collection, some of the jackets were made by pleather too. They were colourful, with paint in grey, silver and red. This showed that the punk movement is still alive for fashion.

In Jean Paul Gaultier exhibion, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, that is happening in Barbican London, until 25th August, he shows this punk side with leather in many outfits, combined with flags and tartan. These were made in his previous collections, celebrating the punk era in 1970s.

The male collection of Junya Watanabe was totally punk, as the Jean Paul Gaultier one. With colourful and different hairstyles, he used lots of tartan and stitched clothing. But just the Women’s collection had some leather in it. They were different jackets, two were full of patchwork, three normal “The Perfecto” and another one was mixed with fur.

Even the most commented catwalk, that was the supermarket created by Karl Lagerfeld in Chanel’s last collection, with the name Chanel Shopping Center, one of the models was using in the catwalk a black zipped fitted leather jacket with buttoms and darts, and chinese mandarim collar. In some advertisements, the top model Cara Delevigne appeared with the singer Rihanna in a market-trolley using a black leather jacket.

The polemic Moschino’s collection, that recreated some food brands and turn it into something fashionable (as McDonalds and Cheetos, for example), had leather jackets too. Mixed with golden colour outfits and accessories, the outfits with leather gave the clear idea of a luxury brand. The black and gold ones are more for street style, while the jackets with cow prints and allusion to McDonalds acessories, were more glamourous.

Some young people were spotted walking in the London Fashion Week wearing leather jackets. Some of the pictures were taken by Folk, from the blog folkandf lair.blogspot.co.uk. One picture is of a guy with stylish hair and some punk inf luence; another one is of girl in a romantic way, but wearing trainers and the jacket; and another recalls the

movie Hellraiser, with many pinheads and some tortured style, and a customized leather jacket. Carry Somers, from Pachacuti, was spotted too wearing a leather jacket with a yellow dress, black tights and boots, in a romantic style.

Walking in the streets of London, you can easily see many people using different styles of leather and pleather jacket. The most common is “The Perfecto”, but others are still very used. It had side zipper, a belt in the waistline, some pockets and a collar falling.

The Aviator one is usually brown or caramel, and have some

padding inside, that keeps the body warm. It became famous by Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun, and makes part of the military trend. It is good for a vintage look, but is not a trend this year.

The Bomber, popular by James Dean too, was part of the catwalks, and lots of people uses it, because is easy to combine. It has elastic in the waist and in the sleeve cuffs. The zipper has a V shape as well. This kind of garment needs to be avoid by overweight people because of the elastic, that can make the person looks bigger. It is good to be wear with skinny jeans.

The Biker, famous by Marlon Brando in The Wild One movie, is more indicated for man, because it usually have high-fitting collar or no collar at all, and the zipper is in the middle. Is good for fit man that has a glam rock style.

The Hooded, used by David Beckham, is good for young people, because it fits in the body and has hood, what made it have a youthful appeal. This have elastic in the waist and in the sleeve cuffs as well, that can make the shoulders looks bigger.

The Tan and Coloured Leather one, popular by John Wayne, can attract attention mainly when men wears it. It can be one of any style above, and me made of pleather too.

Closest to Burberry Prorsum, some people were clicked wearing leather

jacket too

The first motorcycle jacket had the name “The Perfecto”. It was made in 1928 by Irving Schott, and the product was sold in the Harley Davidson’ store in New York for just $5,50. This was used by people who rode motorcycles, and began to be popular in the movie “The Wild One”, in 1953, where Marlon Brando used it.

About two years later, the sex symbol, James Dean, made the leather jacket as his

copyright, because he always wore this to show a rebel reputation. Some boys began to use it too and copy his style, but many schools prohibited their students of from wearing it because they were afraid that they could show bad behaviours.

History

Studs and spikes became popular with the punks, in the 1970s, because they usually customized their outfits to show violence and how they were different and rebelled. They stitched on patches as well, with their favourite bands or movements that they followed. Nowadays, men who use this customized jacket are usually punks, or even rockers.

In 1974, the punk band Ramones, was recognised as making something new, as described by Punk Magazine. The four musicians arrived at the stage of the nightclub CBGB wearing black “Perfecto” jackets, denim trousers and white t-shirts creating a punk rock identity. Years later, some rock bands, as Oasis, adopted the same style.

The leader of the pun rock band Eddie and The Hot Rods, Barrie Masters, was using a red and white leather jacket in one of the concert in the European tour, and said that he uses it because “is more practical, I always wore. I ride motorbikes, so I wear leather jacket. Not many people like leather jackets, but I think that is a cool thing to wear”, completes. In the same day, one of the guitarrists were wearing a black jacket too.

For the bass player Dipster Dean, the leather jacket can be easily related with punk. “It goes back to the day of James Dean, with a rebel cause, the leather jacket rebellion. I think punk is rebellion and against the system. I don’t particularly wear leather jacket, I’ve got a little one, is modern, but I think I am tall for it, and if I wear, I’ll look stupid. It works for some people, so if you like it, wear it”, he finishes.