The Motorcycle Jacket

Glamour reports that Irving Schott designed the first motorcycle jacket in 1928. Named the “Perfecto,” it sold for $5.50 at the Harley-Davidson store in New York. Fast forward to the 1950s, and the motorcycle jacket would go mainstream, thanks to Marlon Brando sporting the coat in 1953’s “The Wild Ones” and James Dean copying the look two years later in “Rebel Without a Cause.” Each decade since, the motorcycle jacket has earned a following in Hollywood, the punk scene and among fashionistas. While designer motorcycle jackets can set one back $1,000 or more, counterculture clothing store The Alley Chicago sells real leather moto jackets for as little as $99. It just happens to be the place where I scored my first such jacket as a teen in the 1990s.