The Leather Studio
Denielle wears: Bronx Jacket No. 384, Clix Zippers t-shirt, studded belt and leather jeans all by Lewis Leathers.
Photography: Nick Clements
Studio direction: Saaya Nohara, Styling: Bianca Turrini and Shehab Abdelrahman
Since the time of the ancient Romans, leather has been used to protect the male body and signal to others that the wearer is ready for a fight – should they be challenged. In those days the military breastplate was known as a cuirass, today we call such a garment simply a leather jacket. Now so loaded with meaning, simplicity is the last term that might be attributed to this ubiquitous and multifaceted signifier. When paired with a neatly trimmed moustache, the leather jacket suggests New York in the 1970s, the West Village and the symbolic essence of masculinity. It also reminds the informed reader of Gillian Freeman’s The Leathers Boys and those coded leather Johnnies ‘wot had no bike’. When matched with a graphic t-shirt and studded leather cuffs, we perceive an allusion to Westwood and McLaren’s Sex and Seditionaries. Then, once goggles are donned, the ton-up boy is evoked and the ride back from the Busy Bee to the Ace Café on a warm summer’s evening. In this short but telling exploration of the garment as a symbol of rebellion and resistance, Men’s File explores the nuances of styling and the subversion and reattribution of meaning.
Deneille wears Clix Zippers t-shirt, belt and leather pants by Lewis Leathers.
Deneille wears goggles by D. Lewis and original milkman cap from the Lewis Leathers archive.
Zack wears leather fronted faux fur leopard skin waistcoat, belt and cuffs, all by The London Leather Man.
Denielle wears: Buco J21, by The Real McCoy’s, t-shirt and Roku Roku jeans by Allevol (all from Clutch Café).
Cap by Quaker Marine.
