Leather forecast: while the options are rife, what better time to channel your inner Kate Moss?

Ready to rev up your look? Take your lead from queen of cool Kate Moss and back the biker
Leading the way: Kate, AllSaints, Jourdan and Hailey show us how it's done
(Pictures: Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images, Melodie Jeng/Getty and SMXRF/Star Max/GC Images)
Emma McCarthy20 January 2015

Everyone wants to be a little bit cooler. Even the super-cool among us. With the exception, of course, of the coolest of us all who, as a direct result of their innate coolness, don't actually want to be cool. But that's only because they're so cool they've never had to worry about not being cool. Cool, right?

Take Kate Moss. Her elevated levels of coolness aren't a matter of opinion but a universally accepted fact.

How did she get to be so cool? And more importantly, how can we become cooler? I realise I’m opening a can of worms in asking the question we’ve been trying to figure out ever since we hit the age of 11 (remember the day Kirsty Pollard took the mick out of your "Rachel" cut and you cried in the toilet for hours?). But wouldn't it be great finally to get to the truth?

While we wait for Kate to shed some light, I'll give you my theory: it's all about the biker jacket. OK, so it's not just about the biker jacket - it would be madness to suggest that what makes La Moss cool can be distilled into one item of clothing (if only) - but it's the fact that Kate Moss is wearing the biker jacket. It's Moss who makes it cool. And here's the really good news: there are more biker jackets around than ever this season. What better time to channel your inner Kate?

The capital's very own biker poster girl, Moss is rarely photographed without one of her fail-safe leather jackets and is in possession of (we reckon) the largest collection in London. This in mind, it's little wonder the belted version that featured in her first collection for Topshop became one of the best-selling items of 2007 after it sold a mind-blowing 15,000 in just eight hours. And it’s no surprise that she is regularly cherry-picked for campaigns for motorcycle-turned-luxury-fashion-labels Belstaff and Matchless.

Leather forecast - in pictures

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And then there was last week.

At the unveiling of the hugely anticipated comeback collection by her dear friend John Galliano in London, Moss wore a high-necked, floor-sweeping black satin evening gown. Paired, naturally, with a leather biker jacket. Man, she looked cool.

Last week's jacket in question was by Saint Laurent - a brand similarly dedicated to being as cool as it can possibly be. The French fashion house, headed by indie-music aficionado Hedi Slimane, is responsible for this jacket in its most luxurious form. A staple in almost all of Slimane's collections - be they men’s or women’s - it has come to represent a high-fashion customer who borrows cool codes from the street but is happy to pay £3,000 for the privilege.

Of course, as we know, the biker has a lifespan that far exceeds Slimane's reign at Saint Laurent. In fact, it has long been a staple on the British high street.

Among the rails of distressed jeans and skull-print T-shirts in AllSaints, the biker jacket has remained a consistent best-seller throughout the brand’s 20-year history. Hovering around the £300 mark, the current batch of styles on offer features a range of subtle variations, from quilting to studding and shearling linings to lived-in looks. As well as selling a lot of leather, the brand has also shot a series of portraits with New York's hottest new music talent - leather-clad, of course - and yesterday it launched the Instagram project #happymondays, which sees the next generation of budding models, bloggers and taste-makers - including Burberry face Neelam Gil - championing the timeless staple.

Elsewhere on the high street, cult French labels Sandro and The Kooples have their fair share of luxe bikers to keep the capital’s Francophiles happy, while the core line of biker jackets in store at Whistles is worth returning to season after season.

We can’t promise it will turn you into Kate Moss. But it’s one step closer at least.

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