‘Now leather is overexposed, suede doesn’t look such a wallflower; it looks authentic and intriguing’
For a long time, my thoughts on suede could be summed up as follows: it’s leather for squares. Leather is for rock guitarists, suede is for guitar teachers. This has always been suede’s image problem, pigeonholed as the approachable, strokable face of animal skin, while leather is the scary, growly side.
But that was before we reached Peak Leather Trouser, a high-water mark recorded sometime around the eighth series of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Leather trousers started out subversive (think: Patti Smith at the Chelsea hotel), became edgy-glamorous (think: French Vogue editors channelling Patti Smith), then just glamorous (think: reality-soap stars channelling French Vogue), and finally wannabe glamorous (school-run mums channelling reality-soap stars.) It’s like a fashion game of Chinese whispers that starts with dangerous downtown decadence and ends in the suburbs, with leather trousers worn with frosted highlights, waterfall cardigans and eternity rings.
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