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Leather trousers are not for the fainthearted. They come with … baggage? Mythology, perhaps, is a gentler way of putting it. Either way, you know what I mean. Leather trousers can be suggestive of pelvic-thrusting rock frontmen. Noisy motorbikes. They hint at midlife crisis or teenage rebellion. They are a lot.
But leather trousers – along with gym clothes in public and cancelling plans at the last minute – have been normalised in polite society. There is a new breed of leather trouser-wearer. You know who I mean: she looks as if she could be an architect, perhaps. She is chic and understated (neutral colours, not too much jewellery) and she’s wearing a nice pair of trousers that just happen to be leather, rather than wearing leather trousers in a let’s-get-the-shots-in kind of way. Again, if you know what I mean.
The thing is, when you get them right, leather trousers have a kind of magic. They have the power to make you look just that tiny bit cooler than everyone else in the room. They can be a brilliant style shortcut. They just need to be handled with care.
First, you need to make peace with the fact that people have opinions about leather trousers. Remember when Theresa May was photographed for a Sunday newspaper wearing a perfectly nice pair of chocolate brown trousers that happened to be leather? The world lost its mind about this for a good fortnight. If you wear leather trousers, the odds are high that someone will make a facetious comment about them being a bit racy. This is slightly irritating, but price it in, smile and move on.
Second, go for a generous cut. It will feel better, for a start. Nobody needs to be sweating and squeaking in their trousers. It will look better, too. At a basic level, there is something animalistic about the messaging of wearing leather. This is true to pretty much the same degree whether the leather is real or fake, since most of us can’t tell the difference. If the leather is second-skin tight, then it looks like a body part when it moves instead of like fabric. This means that when skinny-legged shapes are in, leather trousers look very raw and primal. But at a time like now, when generous cuts are in vogue, you can wear them without looking as if you are on the prowl.
What to wear with them? Don’t think about a specific style or colour, but rather a mood. That mood is calm. Leather trousers can feel a little theatrical, and what we are trying to do here is to chill them out. In fact, the best way to style a pair is to try to forget they are leather, and dress as if they were regular trousers. What this means, at a granular level, is that instead of scanning your wardrobe for a rock’n’roll, raunchy top to match the energy of your leather trousers, reach in the opposite direction.
The coolest partner is a top half that lowers the temperature a little. A fluffy knit is ideal, or a simple T-shirt. As a top layer, a wool peacoat or a chunky cardigan is a good bet. (It all gets a bit lord-of-darkness if you wear a big overcoat over leather trousers.) Be mindful of the accessories that will be part of your look, but which you won’t necessarily see in your bedroom mirror. For example: there is a very good chance that your handbag is black leather. And that your favourite loafers are black leather. If you are wearing black leather trousers, you might want to switch one of those accessories for a different colour or fabric, so as not to get too Matrix-coded.
They are just a great pair of trousers that happen to be leather. They look sharp late at night when lesser trousers have wilted. They make you look like you’re not trying, even when you’ve actually thought quite a lot about what you’re wearing, which is one of the best tricks any garment can pull off. All you need to do is play it cool.
Model: Laura Brown at Milk. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Hair by Sam McKnight and Osmosis beauty. Styling assistant: Charlotte Gornall. Earrings, £100, Dinosaur Designs. Scarf, £65, John Lewis. Jumper, £77, & Other Stories. Trousers, £650, Me+Em. Shoes, £205, Miista
English (US)