'The leather jacket used to hang out on street corners; now it can be found in Starbucks'
There was a story in the papers last month that Liam Gallagher had requested VIP tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show. I was cheered when Gallagher vehemently denied this. (I have always assumed a "vehement denial" to be newspaper code for "with swearwords".) Rebels should stay rebels: it is disappointing when the hard nuts go soft on us.
Which is why I have mixed feelings about the domestication of the leather jacket. It has been an icon of rebellion for a century, from the Bolsheviks to Sid Vicious, James Dean to the Fonz, Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones to Brad Pitt in Fight Club. This bad boy is steeped in 100 years of outlaws and bikers, metalheads and punks. So much so that I had hardly noticed what was happening all around me, until a nice middle-aged executive of a nice middle-market fashion store mentioned that it was the one key piece they had to get right every season, because it now has such universal appeal that it could be successfully marketed to all women between 25 and 55. You don't have to be young, and you don't have to be edgy, to wear one. It has become standard suburban day-to-night wear. It used to hang out on street corners; now it can be found in Starbucks.
Part of the reason the leather jacket has gone soft is that, well, the leather jacket has gone soft. Until not long ago, they were heavy, brutish things that weighed a ton and gave you a broad, bovine frame. Unless you could afford Rick Owens, you essentially looked as if you were carrying a Holstein cow across your shoulders. Developments in fabric technology mean you can now find a leather jacket that is as light as a cardigan, for a price that won't scare the horses. While the traditional jacket looked comfortable only when paired with the heft of denim or more leather, this new breed (sorry) works over a lightweight dress. A cardigan is cosy, a blazer is smart, but the leather jacket adds a modicum of spice to the same outfit.
You see what happened there? Leather jackets, cardigans and blazers all in one sentence. How things have changed. Indiana Jones did not, after all, wear cardigans. And even Liam Gallagher has yet to be spotted in a blazer.
• Jess wears leather jacket, £1,496, by Rick Owens, from netaporter.com. Dress, £35, asos.com. Heels, £475, jimmychoo.com.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Tonee Roberio using Mac Cosmetics.