Guide to Leather Jackets
Leather jackets were among the most expensive and popular items in the Banana Republic catalog, often taking up prime real estate near the front or at the center of the catalogue.
Banana Republic made a number of leather jackets, this guide attempts to highlight the most popular styles.
Featured Leather Jackets
Bench Leather Jacket
This jacket reminds me of the On-The Road jacket a little It has the same leather cuff protectors and light coloring. I also like the lining very much. A handsome jacket only offered in Fall and Christmas 1987. From the catalogue: “Once upon a time, in a humble saddler’s shop, there was a lambskin covering […]
Snap Collar Bomber Jacket
New the Fall 1988 catalogue, the Snap-Collar Bomber Jacket is described as dark chocolate brown, so I am not at all sure that the pictures from eBay below are the same jacket, but I think so. However, there are no black jackets in the catalogue that match the photos. (It may simply be that the […]
Open Cockpit Aviator’s Jacket
Issued only in Fall 1983 and Fall 1984 this Goatskin jacket is more rare than the other BR leathers. From the catalog: “Issued in the 1930s to the U.S. Navy Air Force pilots, this ingenious jacket was uniquely designed for the special demands of open cockpit flying. The average altitude for flying then was 5,500 […]
Army Air Corps Jacket
Made in the USA of Argentine cowhide, the distressed leather Army Air Corps jacket was wildly popular in the 1980s and was much copied as I remember. All is fair, seeing as it’s a copy of an original anyway! It was in the catalogues along with the Goatskin Flight Jacket and Leather Flight Jacket so […]
Leather Flight Jacket
The catalog copy for the new Leather Flight Jacket begins with a critique of the faults of the “classic Flight Jacket” without mentioning the previous Goatskin Flight Jacket from BR was an updated copy of the classic and had many of those same faults. From the catlogue:” The classic leather flight jacket originally worn by […]
Goatskin Flight Jacket
This is the original Banana Republic Flight Jacket, dating from 1982 to 1985 when the Leather Flight Jacket replaced it. It’s distinguished by it’s dark brown almost black color, dark mouton snap-on collar, and buttons on the pockets. From the 1982 catalogue that introduced it: “Over the years we’ve examined, tested and lived with virtually […]
On The Road Jacket
This jacket really revels in its San Francisco roots. Made in San Francisco by the Golden Bear company (as detailed in the Wild Company memoir) it’s a tribute to the legendary Beat writer and at one point the catalogue copy included a testimonial from poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti whose famed City Lights Bookstore sits along Jack […]
I like this. The two grails I’ve spent half my life searching for. A photo of a BR Aviator’s Jacket that didn’t look completely trashed. The elusive leather toe guard shoes. I saw those for real once on the feet of a colleague at UC Santa Barbara. This teacher wore nothing but flip flops on his tootsies as I recall, as surfing took precedence over appropriate classroom attire. They must have been either incredibly comfortable shoes or the occasion must have called for more formal footwear.
Whaddya think? Did that jacket have the typical eighties enormous linebacker-wearing-shoulder pads fit?