Mystique of the Black Leather Motorcycle Jacket

Black leather jackets and motorcycles: they're inseparable today, but it hasn't always been that way. The first motorcycle leathers were adapted from the apparel of WWI soldiers and pilots. At the time, leather was associated with the speed and adventure of mechanized transport. But it was the movies that gave black leather motorcycle jackets their enduring mystique.

The History of Motorcycle Jackets
The first true leather motorcycle jacket was created by Irving Schott in 1928. It was called the Perfecto, and was sold through a Harley Davidson distributor in Long Island.

Other companies eventually followed suit. Harley Davidson began making leather motorcycle jackets in the 1940s. So did the Joseph Buegeleisen Company, commonly known as "Buco." The Buco J24 design was referred to by Rin Tanaka, author of Motorcycle Jackets: A Century of Leather Design, as "the coolest motorcycle jacket ever."

But it was a later version of Schott's Perfecto - the Perfecto 618 motorcycle jacket - that would become synonymous with coolness and rebellion in the public eye.

Marlon Brando and James Dean
The mystique of the black leather motorcycle jacket is attributable to Marlon Brando's performance in The Wild One and to the life and death of James Dean. After Brando's leather-clad turn in the 1953 tale of outlaw bikers, sales of the Perfecto 618 motorcycle jacket plummeted. The jacket was so synonymous with Brando's "Whaddaya got?" rebellion that it was banned by school systems.

Two years later, Rebel without a Cause was released, and James Dean died that same autumn. The film, the manner of Dean's death (auto accident), and his known preference for leather jackets sealed the connection in the public mind between speed, danger, rebellion, and leather motorcycle jackets.

For more on the history of leather motorcycle jackets, see Rin Tanaka's book Motorcycle Jackets: Ultimate Bikers' Fashions.