Leather jacket names get used loosely — anything with a zip becomes a biker, anything short a bomber. The categories are actually precise, because nearly all of them began as work uniforms with a job to do — keep a rider on a motorcycle, keep an aircrew warm at altitude, keep a driver's tools within reach. Once you know the job, you can read a jacket on sight.
What are the main types of leather jacket?
There are nine core types: the biker (or Perfecto), the café racer, the bomber, the Harrington, the aviator or shearling flight jacket, the trucker and field jacket, the leather blazer, the long leather coat, and the leather puffer. The three details that separate them are the zip line, the collar, and where the hem falls.
| Type | Defining details | How it sits | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biker / Perfecto | Asymmetric zip, wide fold-back lapel, waist belt | Close through the body, hem at the hip bone | Denim, boots, anything that wants a hard edge |
| Café racer | Straight centre zip, stand collar, no lapel | Trim and short, hem at the waistband | Tailored trousers, knitwear, plain wardrobes |
| Bomber | Ribbed knit collar, cuffs and hem; blouson volume | Full through the chest, gathered at the waist | Casual layering over sweatshirts and tees |
| Harrington | Flat point collar, elasticated hem, no rib at the neck | Boxy but shallow, hem just below the belt | Shirts, chinos, unstructured smart-casual |
| Aviator / shearling | Shearling collar, heavy panelled body, throat strap | Broad and deliberately bulky | Real cold, worn over few layers |
| Trucker / field | Chest flap pockets, button front, waist tabs | Straight and square, hem at the hip | Denim, flannel, layering as a shirt jacket |
| Leather blazer | Notch lapel, welt pockets, tailored shoulder | Shaped at the waist, hem below the seat | Jacket duty without a suit |
| Long coat | Below-knee length, soft drape, minimal hardware | Falls straight, moves with the walk | Tailoring, dresses, city evenings |
| Leather puffer | Quilted baffles over insulation, no lapel | Rounded volume, short or mid length | Cold weather with a sportier line |
What is a biker jacket, and why is it called a Perfecto?
A biker jacket is defined by three things — a zip that runs diagonally across the chest rather than up the middle, a wide lapel that folds back, and a belt at the waist — and it is called a Perfecto because that was the model name Schott Bros. gave the original, made in New York in 1928 for a Long Island motorcycle distributor. Irving Schott is said to have taken the name from the cigars he smoked. Every decision was functional. The offset zip keeps the closure off the sternum when the rider folds forward. The belt stops the jacket riding up. The lapel snaps flat at speed and opens at a standstill.
It wants a plain wardrobe around it — straight denim, a crew neck, heavy boots. A black example such as the Onice Biker in full-grain calfskin shows the shape stripped to essentials.
What is a café racer jacket?
A café racer is the biker with everything removed: a straight centre zip, a small stand collar with no lapel, no belt, rarely more than two pockets. The name comes from the British riders of the late 1950s and 1960s who sprinted between transport cafés on stripped-down motorcycles, in jackets cut narrow and free of anything that could catch the wind.
With no lapel breaking the chest, it reads as a single vertical line and sits closer to tailoring than a Perfecto does — it goes over a fine-gauge roll neck and flat-front trousers without looking like fancy dress. A jacket like the Velocità Café Racer is two front panels and a collar band, so the pattern has to be right. Women's versions keep the same flat front on a shorter body, as in the women's collection.
Biker jacket vs café racer: which should you choose?
Choose the biker for presence and the café racer for line. The biker's zip, lapel and belt add horizontal information across the chest and waist, which broadens the body; the café racer adds nothing, so it lengthens and stays neutral. If most of what you own is denim and boots, take the biker. If it is tailored or knitted, take the café racer.
What is the difference between a bomber and a Harrington?
The difference is the collar and the hem: a bomber has ribbed knit at the collar, cuffs and hem, which gathers the body into a blouson, while a Harrington has a flat point collar — the kind you would find on a shirt — and a shallower, usually elasticated hem, so it stays boxier and flatter. Only the bomber has that band of rib around the neck.
The bomber descends from military flight jackets, though the ribbed collar arrived late. The leather A-2, standardised by the US Army Air Corps in the early 1930s, already had knit cuffs and a knit waistband but kept a leather shirt collar; the knit collar belongs to the later nylon MA-1. The Harrington is civilian — Baracuta's G9, made in England from the late 1930s, took its nickname in the 1960s from a television character who wore one.
In leather, the rib carries the bomber, and a smooth hide keeps the volume clean, as on the Avorio Bomber in smooth lambskin. Wear a bomber over a sweatshirt and let it blouse; wear a Harrington over a collared shirt.
What is an aviator or flight jacket?
An aviator jacket is a heavy flight jacket with a shearling collar — sheepskin tanned with the wool still attached to the skin — and often shearling through the body. The type comes from unheated cockpits, where the leather side blocked wind and the wool trapped warm air against the body. The B-3 and the RAF Irvin are the reference patterns: broad panels, a throat strap, a deep collar that turns up over the ears.
Cold first, style second. It is bulky by design, so it needs a narrow leg and low-volume knitwear underneath. A piece such as the Aviatore Shearling Bomber keeps the shearling at the collar and a bomber silhouette below it — warmth at the neck without the full flight-crew mass.
What is a leather trucker jacket?
A trucker is the denim jacket pattern cut in leather: a button or snap front, two chest flap pockets, adjustable waist tabs, and a straight, square hem. Levi's Type III of 1962 set the template. Field jackets share its logic — pockets you can reach standing up, a hem that clears a belt.
Cut straight rather than shaped, a trucker layers easily — over a flannel shirt, under a coat. Waxed and distressed hides suit it because they are meant to mark, and the Officina Trucker in waxed cowhide takes on a patina at the elbows and pocket edges.
When does a leather blazer make sense?
A leather blazer makes sense when you want a jacket's authority without a suit's formality. It borrows tailoring's language — notch lapel, welt pockets, shaped waist, a hem covering the seat — in a hide soft enough to drape rather than stand. It needs supple leather: a stiff hide fights the lapel roll and the shape goes wooden. A soft lambskin version such as the Sartoria Blazer goes over a fine knit with wool trousers, or a shirt with denim. What it does not do is casual.
How do long leather coats and leather puffers differ from jackets?
Both trade the jacket's structure for something else — length in one case, volume in the other. A long leather coat falls below the knee and depends entirely on drape, which is why soft, milled lambskins such as plongé are used — worked until the hide is fluid rather than firm, so the coat moves in a column instead of swinging like a board. The Ombra Long Coat is the type in its plainest form.
A puffer works the opposite way. Quilted baffles hold insulation, so the silhouette is rounded and the warmth comes from trapped air rather than the hide. A piece like the Ghiaccio Puffer sits with sportswear and knitwear rather than tailoring. The trade-off: quilting removes the leather's structural role, so a puffer never holds a shoulder line the way a biker or blazer does.
How do you choose between them?
Work backwards from the clothes you already own. Knitwear and tailoring point to the café racer, the blazer or the long coat; sweatshirts and denim point to the biker, bomber or trucker. Then temperature: a single-layer lambskin biker is a three-season jacket, while shearling and quilting are for real winter. Then noise: asymmetry, belts and hardware are loud, centre zips and flat fronts are quiet.
Then check the hide against the shape. Full-grain leather keeps the outer grain layer of the skin intact, with nothing sanded off the surface, which is why full-grain calfskin resists stretch and holds a standing shape; top-grain has that surface corrected and refinished, so it looks more uniform and usually feels softer. Lambskin is thinner and finer-fibred than calf or cow, so it drapes and follows the body but marks more easily. Waxed or distressed cowhide belongs on workwear patterns meant to age.
Fit is the last check, and easier to judge in the round: the thirty models in the full collection are cut to order in XS to XXL, and each product page carries a 360-degree view, where a badly sitting shoulder seam shows.
The short answer
- Biker vs café racer: asymmetric zip, folding lapel and waist belt against a straight centre zip and a bare stand collar. Biker for presence, café racer for line.
- Bomber vs Harrington: ribbed knit at collar, cuffs and hem against a flat point collar with no rib at the neck. The collar is the tell.
- Aviator: shearling collar and heavy panels, built for cold and bulky enough that everything under it should be slim.
- Trucker and field: button front, chest flap pockets, straight hem — the easiest shape to layer, and best in hides meant to mark.
- Blazer, long coat, puffer: tailoring in leather, drape in leather, warmth in leather — each needs a hide that matches its job.