Men’s Blue Leather Bomber Jacket — Steel Blue, Sleeve Pocket

Description

A flight-pattern bomber in steel blue: ribbed stand collar, straight centre zip, ribbed cuffs and hem, slash hand pockets and a zipped pocket on the left sleeve. The blue is muted and slightly grey rather than vivid — closer to worn denim than to a bright cobalt.

The colour

A desaturated mid blue, which is what makes it wearable. It behaves in an outfit the way a denim jacket does: it goes with grey, black, white, cream and olive without any thought, and it reads as a considered choice rather than a bold one. A saturated blue leather jacket is a much harder garment to own.

The leather

Full-grain hide, smooth, dyed blue. On a coloured jacket the depth of the dye is what to look at — this one shifts darker in the folds and at the seams rather than sitting flat across every panel, which is the behaviour of dye in real grain rather than pigment on a coating.

How it is cut

Bomber proportions with room through the body, gathered at the hip by the rib, hem at the belt. The cut forgives half a size either way, which makes it one of the safer jackets to buy without trying on. The shoulder still decides.

What to wear it with

Grey, white, black, cream. Black denim or chinos. The one pairing to avoid is blue jeans in a similar wash — a blue jacket and blue trousers a shade apart look accidental, where a clear difference looks intended.

Looking after it

Condition twice a year with a colourless product. Keep it out of long direct sun, which fades dyed blues faster than it does black. Hang it rather than folding so the ribbed hem does not set a crease.

Shipping, duties and returns

Free worldwide shipping, 4–9 working days. Import duties are settled before dispatch where the carrier supports Delivered Duty Paid to the destination country; where it does not, duty is charged locally and we will tell you which applies before you order. Thirty days to return anything unworn with tags attached. Questions to info@cordwainleather.com or +34 614 79 27 86.

Size chart

Measure your chest around the fullest part with the tape level. Jacket chest is the finished garment measurement and runs larger than your body, because the jacket has to close over you. Between two sizes, take the larger.

Still unsure? Email your chest and shoulder measurements to info@cordwainleather.com and we will come back with one size, not a chart to guess from.

Questions about coloured leather jackets

Does coloured leather look fake?

Badly dyed leather does, and so does any leather with a heavy pigment coating — the giveaway is a flat, plastic uniformity with no grain showing through. Properly dyed leather in any colour varies panel to panel and deepens in the creases, exactly as black and brown do. Judge it by whether you can see the grain, not by the colour.

Does leather dye go all the way through?

It depends how it was coloured. Drum-dyed leather is soaked so the colour penetrates the full thickness, which means a scratch shows the same shade underneath. Surface-dyed or pigment-coated leather is coloured only on the face, so a deep scuff shows pale hide. Drum dyeing costs more and is what you want on a coloured jacket.

Is blue a sensible first leather jacket?

A muted blue like this, yes — it works in almost every situation black does and looks less severe. A bright blue, no: buy that as a second or third jacket when you already have something you can throw on without thinking.

Do leather jackets come in half sizes?

Almost never. Jackets run XS to 3XL or 36 to 50, and the gaps between them are where the problem lies. This is exactly why the chart gives your body measurement and the finished garment measurement separately — if you fall between two, the larger size with the waist taken in by a tailor is the reliable answer.

Can you wear a leather bomber over a suit jacket?

Not comfortably. A bomber is cut to the hip and a suit jacket is longer, so the tailoring hangs out below and the shoulders bunch underneath. Leather over tailoring needs a longer, looser coat. Over a shirt, a knit or a waistcoat, a bomber is fine.

How can you tell a leather jacket has been stored badly?

Look for a hard, shiny line across the shoulders where a narrow hanger sat; a musty smell in the lining; and stiffness at the folds where the hide has dried out. A jacket kept in a plastic cover in a warm room shows all three. These are the second-hand warning signs, and none of them improve with conditioning.