With autumn comes a chill and with winter comes a bite, when the ice forms and sends shivers down one’s bones. The only cool you need to worry about is your style and this season one hard edged trend loved by many is making a welcome return to the runways. Regardless of one’s personality or way of dress, we always like to think that within each one of us is a little bit of a rebel. A little extra toughness that we use as our armour against the world is something we all must adorn in order to feel ready for anything.
Leather has been around for centuries and it has become a style staple for many in the past few seasons. It comes in many forms with the most obvious being the biker style that always sits on the fine line between cool and cliché. In recent seasons we have seen things take a little more of a rustic turn in the form of David Beckham for Belstaff or even the military rebel look coming from Diesel. High street brands such as River Island and Topman are also doing their own nod to these different leather looks as well as offering up a hint of motocross in one or two of their pieces.
The strength in leather this AW14 is being utilised predominantly in the form of outerwear, this idea of man against the elements taking his survival to the next leather level. There’s a toughness to leather that is good few notches above what we would normally expect, there’s a grit there that dictates ‘Do not mess with me’. It all goes back to this idea of armour and adding that little extra bit of toughness to our looks. It may seem a little Neanderthal but it all comes down to this idea of ‘I am Man, hear me roar’. What may seem predominantly prehistoric is all wrapped up in luxury sophistication with many leather pieces being made with super high quality materials and being created in a way that radiates luxury and refinement.
Sometimes the idea of leather can have a somewhat of a tarnished reputation which is no thanks to Mr Grey and however many shades of grey he is into. Many designers do like to ‘go there’ with their designs but thankfully sophistication is focused more on a style suited to M&S as opposed to S&M. This season is all about dominance in the sense of a powerful man as opposed to male degradation. Being a strong man is something that is within all of us and a little leather armour is perfect for taking our outfits to the next level and for taking on the world.
The boys of High Def Male are known to carry a number of stereotypical leather pieces with us at all times, items such as wallet, belt, briefcase, bag, phone/tablet case etc are all pretty much the standard. But even this season many of these pieces are getting a bit roughed up to steer away from the sometimes too clean lines of everyday pieces. Here, in the world of High Def Male, we are all starting to pay more and more attention to the idea of a super cool and edgy luxury leather piece so you can imagine that we have thrown ourselves into the world of fashionable leather pieces, and some of us have had to be forced to share them with you guys, our wonderful readers.
The Pieces
Some Last Words
The great thing about leather is its versatility. It can be used on a garment in its entirety or can be used to accent a particular part of a design feature. Leather trims and edging is a very subtle way to rock a little edge but there is no reason why you should not want to rock a hard and edgy piece of leather. This autumn shows us that even though things are cooling down you can certainly still harden up your style with the addition of a luxury leather piece.
