E ver since Marlon Brando walked into that bar in 1953’s The Wild One in his Levi’s 501’s, Schott Perfecto biker jacket and engineer boots, the leather jacket has symbolised rebellion. The impact László Benedek’s film had on youth culture, filmmaking and movie stardom was immeasurable – though its most enduring legacy is not in Brando’s swagger, but the black leather jacket his hard-knuckled rebel dons. At the time, The Wild One was considered such a threat to society that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused to give it a classification for 14 years, citing its depiction of “unrestricted hooliganism”.
The leather jacket itself was banned in American schools, considered a sign of criminal intent in and of itself. Since then, it has become a sartorial go-to for bad seeds, rebels and punks. Jeff Nichols’s latest film, the Tom Hardy drama The Bikeriders , which is in UK cinemas now, harkens back to this moment in American history – a time in which the leather jacket was a symbol of unrest and revolution, but also of belonging.
Before it became a cultural icon, the leather jacket was a utilitarian item of clothing, mostly worn by pilots and highway patrol cops to keep safe in the rain and harsh weather. Irving Schott, who’d started off making raincoats in a New York City basement that he sold door-to-door with his brother, designed the now-iconic Perfecto jacket in 1928, naming it after his favourite cigar. It was sold originally throug.