Have you ever been to a clothing store and found a nice piece of leather jacket? It looks great, is a good fit, you look good in it, has a low price point, and you later find that it’s a female leather jacket. Then you wonder if you could possibly still wear it and not look weird. I set out to find some answers and I’m ready to share what I found.
So, can a man wear a woman’s Leather Jacket? Yes, you can if it feels comfortable, fits well and drapes nicely with your stature and style and has no apparent female designs or cuts, you can wear it!
Here I don’t specifically mean cross-dressing but leather jackets that are manufactured for women that a man can pull off. You can totally walk away with a female leather jacket if you could spend a few seconds checking these few things on it. Read on to find out what to look out for.
1. How the Leather Jacket Looks
In today’s era of cross-dressing and metro-sexual fashion, it can be difficult to figure out what type of outfit belongs to a particular type of gender.
Sometimes, jackets have obvious differences that make telling them apart (that is men or women) so easy, other times there are merely subtle differences that make it difficult.
In many situations, you will be able to tell which gender the leather jacket belongs to with a quick glance at the buttons but we can figure out the jacket by looking at the shoulders, zippers, sizes, collars, colors and so on. Another easy tell is by simply checking the inner lining for a tag or label.
Buttons positioning is very easy and most people can tell. Generally, men’s buttons are positioned on the right while women’s are positioned on the left.
The history of the placement of buttons dates back to when men were supposed to have their buttons on the right so as to allow them to easily retrieve their sword.
On the other hand, females had their buttons on the left to easily allow their maids to easily dress their female employers more conveniently.
However, with all the creativity in fashion out there today, buttoning position is not a sure way an accurate determining factor which gender the leather jacket is for.
With this said, you can to a large extent wear a woman’s leather jacket and it will be overlooked and considered a style.
The safest form of female leather jackets you can completely get away with is the one with a zipper placement. Unlike buttons in which people could just figure out the position of left or right for men and women, a zipper’s positions are not quite apparent and most people will not know its ideal positioning.
You would also have to look out for size. Men’s jackets typically have broader shoulders and backs built in to accommodate men’s larger upper bodies. Men’s leather jackets are generally larger with broad shoulders and backs built in to take men’s larger upper torso.
You find that most men’s jackets also have a peculiar cut of being straight up and down showing off a square body structure while that of women will appear to flare slightly towards their hips.
In women’s’ leather jackets, you will also find that the collar is narrow compared to men with a slight slant towards the front center.
The color spectrum is also a telling factor. Men’s leather jackets are mostly in the colors of black, dark and light gray or brown. So if the women’s jacket you find is more of men’s colors you can totally rock it.
The conventional wide variety of colors including white, pink, red, orange, tan, purple, are traditional women’s colors with jackets and you should totally avoid those.
Knowing all these key points should go a long way to inform your decision to help you choose a leather jacket that will look great on you with no awkwardness.
2. How the Leather Jacket Fits
How the leather jacket fits is really important because you don’t want to appear from a distance with the silhouette of a woman.
So here you need to pay attention to how it fits taking into consideration these few quick checklists.
Look at how the leather jacket is tailored. You’d know that men’s leather jackets usually have long torsos and with a broad width in the shoulder area. This generally determines how well the leather jacket fits.
Also, looking at the waist-cut design helps. Usually, in men’s jackets, the waist cuts are lower compared to females’ leather jackets which tend to have a bit of a cinched-in waist.
The bust or chest area of the female leather jackets are cut to be able to accommodate breasts. Female leather jackets may also have some padding or an extra layer of fabric so look that up and sure it is not entirely obvious or better still if it will let your chest standout quite well enough.
How the Leather Jacket Fits: The Checklist
- When you pick up the leather jacket, you want to make sure you close the zipper all the way up. When you do this, you will be able to know if it truly fits well around the shoulders and armpits. It should actually feel like a second skin. Any size slightly less than what you often wear is great.
- Now check the length of the jacket. The length should be where your waist naturally is. A Leather jacket above the waist will make you look short and you wouldn’t want that.
- For the sleeves, it should be right up your wrist. I know this will be a bit difficult to find in women’s leather jacket because men’s arms is often longer. But an ideal up to the wrist length is perfect.
3. Style of the Leather Jacket
Last but not least and the easiest is the style of the jacket of the Leather Jacket.
Although the fashion industry has maintained some amount of balance in the syles of leather jackets there are, you would still want to ensure the leather jacket you pick out is either of these so that even a women’s jacket it looks quite normal for men.
- The Perfecto Style: It is classic motorcycle wear with a diagonal zipper. You will be able to have a great look and classy in a perfecto style ladies jacket.
- The classic Racer jacket: The racer jacket is a common type of men’s jacket. It has a minimal design, very versatile with a zip front zipper.
- Flight Leather Jacket: With a signature detail of wrist, cuffs, fluffy collar, and two large pockets.
- Bomber Jacket: This is the most popular type of leather jacket. It also has a minimal design and is very versatile. It is has a ribbed collar, zip front zipper, and pockets on the sides.
Check out an article I wrote on a complete guide for Leather Jackets
You can feel free and wear women’s jackets if its feature, style, color, overall look, and fitness is suitable and makes you comfortable. If there happens to be a situation where you have no option to but to wear a women’s jacket like weather, feel free and do so and don’t bother about the features or fitness as long as it solves your problem.
Related Question
What is the difference between men and women’s jackets? The difference between men and women’s jackets is the shoulders, bust and waist fit, buttons position, length of sleeves, range of colors, and size. Contrary to women’s jackets men’s jackets have broad shoulders, straight waist fitting, buttons positioned to the right, long sleeves and has limited colors of black, grey, and tan.