The leather jacket has had many lives, but never goes out of fashion. Leather jackets of all colours and cuts have graced the backs of style mavens through the ages: James Dean, to name the most famous of all, and since him almost every famous person ever. A practical wardrobe for motorcyclists and military aviators and a favorite for a whole list of music subcultures, the leather jacket has earned its chops.
We have a number of vintage leather jackets in store, including some deadstock "café racers." Café racer jackets have their roots in 1960s British counterculture and owe their fame to a group of guys, known as “the Rockers,” who rode café racer motorcycles and loved rock and roll music. Their bikes were fast, easily personalized and used primarily to travel between transport cafés (what we now call "truck stops) along the newly built arterial motorways in and around British towns and cities.
The ultimate goal of a Rocker was to be able to reach 160 km/h on their bike— a feat termed "the ton." Riders would race between cafés, trying to make a return trip before a single song could play on the jukebox. This was referred to as record-racing. Given that some of the tunes in vogue at this time were no longer than two minutes long, the racers had to make the three-mile round trip at astonishingly high speed.
The style of the Rockers became popular in European countries including Italy (no surprise there!), where the motorcycles were also used for short, high speed trips from one coffee bar to another.
Café racer jackets are stream lined and fit like a ‘second skin’ with few embellishments, save for some stylish padding and a high snap neck. Though these beauties will best fit the modern petite lady, café racer jackets were designed for the kind of dude that believed life was a highway of jukeboxes. The Rocker image is now embedded in today's rockabilly culture. Given the coffee culture in Montreal a café racer jacket might just come in handy. How about a race between Café Olympico and Café Italia?
Own a piece of 60s leather history. Jackets $95 in store (limited stock)
