At some point in the mid-twentieth century, the leather jacket ceased to be a mere item of clothing and became a bona fide cultural icon. When we think of leather jackets now, we think of daring pilots, rebellious bikers, and an effortless cool that retains its potency all these decades later.
The leather jacket owes its place in popular culture to a cavalcade of leather-clad characters from classic movies and TV shows, as well as some real-life celebrities who made the jacket a core part of their look. Let's take a look at some of those big names and the iconic leather jackets they wore...
1) Elvis Presley
Elvis may be the most famous person ever to don a leather jacket. It's well known that The King loved motorcycles (he supposedly owned at least a dozen Harley-Davidsons) and he was often seen wearing a leather biker jacket both on and off the stage.
As a result, leather jackets have remained an enduring part of Presley's image. Notably, promotional posters for the 2022 biopic Elvis featured the movie's star Austin Butler in - what else? - a classic black leather jacket.
The photo at the top of this page, which shows Elvis astride one of his beloved Harleys, was the inspiration for our 'Elvis' leather jacket.
We are enormously proud of this replica - we feel it really captures The King's unmistakable style, and our talented craftspeople have nailed every little detail.
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2) The Fonz
Arthur Fonzarelli - or 'Fonzie' as he was known to millions of viewers in the 1970s - isn't really the main character in Happy Days, but he's certainly the most recognisable.
Portrayed by Henry Winkler, The Fonz (pictured below right) was a high school dropout who rode a motorbike and embodied the 'greaser' look that was all the rage in the rockin' fifties. Naturally, he was almost always shown wearing a leather jacket.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
The Fonz is a legend of primetime television. He was TV's original 'breakout' character - that is, a secondary character who proved unexpectedly popular with the audience and got more and more screentime as the series went on. Even now, forty years after the final episode of Happy Days, Arthur Fonzarelli is still the archetypal 'cool guy' of pop culture.
Fonzie's legacy inspired Aero to make the 'Happy Days' leather jacket, a faithful imitation of the jacket worn by Henry Winkler on the show.
(Note: the leather jacket seen in Happy Days was itself inspired by the flight jackets that American pilots wore during World War II, so you may notice similarities between this design and some of our US Air Force replica jackets.)
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3) Johnny Strabler
Johnny Strabler was the character played by Marlon Brando in 1953's The Wild One. In the film, Johnny is the leader of a motorcycle gang called the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, whose feud with a rival gang causes chaos in the town of Wrightsville.
Image source: Flickr (public domain)
If there's one part of The Wild One that everybody remembers, it's this exchange between Johnny and one of the girls from the town:
"Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?"
"Whadda you got?"
It's safe to say that Johnny's brooding outlaw image is a cornerstone of the leather jacket's enduring appeal, even today. Our own Motorcycle Jacket is directly inspired by the design seen on Brando in The Wild One.
This jacket is the pinnacle of 1950s biker style. Whether or not you have a motorbike of your own, we think you'll enjoy wearing this number - it's a real nostalgia hit!
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4) Red Pollard
Back in 2003, cinemagoers fell in love with a horse named Seabiscuit. The eponymous film, which clocked up seven Oscar nominations that year, starred Tobey Maguire as John 'Red' Pollard, the real-life Canadian jockey who defied expectations by winning race after race on an undersized and uncooperative thoroughbred.
In the end, Seabiscuit didn't win any of those Academy Awards - it had the bad fortune to come out in the same year as Return of the King - but it certainly hasn't been forgotten. More than two decades after the film's cinematic release, we still get the occasional request for a leather jacket that looks like the one Spider-Man wore in that film about the racehorse.
Pictured above is our Premier Sea Biscuit jacket, which is essentially a replica of the jacket worn by Maguire when he was playing Red Pollard in Seabiscuit. We had to watch the film quite a few times to capture the fine details, but we're exceptionally pleased with the result!
In contrast to the fifties-style biker jackets worn by the likes of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando, our Seabiscuit-inspired jacket has more of a 1930s style. It's part of our Premier range, so expect a slim fit with high-cut sleeves and armholes. The overall look is really rather dapper.
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5) Major John C. Egan
Before leather jackets were the uniform of rebels, riders and rock 'n' rollers, they were standard issue for the flying aces who helped the Allies to win the Second World War.
Many of Aero's most popular jackets are based on the designs worn by British and American pilots during WW2, so we were thrilled when the people behind Masters of the Air (an Apple TV miniseries that has been described as 'Band of Brothers in the sky') commissioned us to provide era-authentic flight jackets for the show's cast.
The picture above shows Callum Turner in character as Major John C. Egan, who served with the 100th Bomb Group of the U.S. Air Force during the war. He is wearing a Type B3 flight jacket that we crafted specifically for this production. You can read more about that here.
As expected, Major John C. Egan's Type B-3 has been a big seller for us since Masters of the Air was released in early 2024. This heavy-duty sheepskin jacket has a loose fit and a rough-and-ready look that's true to what pilots like Major Egan actually wore when they were in the air.
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