Edward
Bartender
- Messages
- 26,498
- Location
- London, UK
I think it's cowhide, very thin but quality cowhide. I think this one is from the 90s. It's much more a fashion jacket than a mc jacket.
Compared to LL jackets from the 80s I've handled, the hides from the 80s were heavier but of lesser quality. The nicest vintage ones are the ones from the 70s imo.
Based on what I've handled, the 60ws were the real glory days, with things declining from the late 70s onwards - some great jackets from that period, but QC was more hit and miss. IT's surprising how light many British bike jackets were back in the day; sometimes seems that notions of rider safety and PPE are a very modern concept indeed! It'd be interesting to know what proportion of Lewises since the 1990s revival are actually worn on bike and what proportion sell to non-riders. The latter (as with bike-style jackets in general) seem to have markedly increased from the 70s onwards when the leather jacket became a staple associated with many heavy metal and (to some extent, though mostly second-wave in the UK) punk rock subculture members.


