Can Men’s Leather Pants Ever Be Stylish? A (Very Skeptical) Writer Investigates

IN NEWS sure to leave biker gangs uncharacteristically tearful, leather pants are threatening to go bougie. Long a bad-boy symbol, hide trousers have been transformed by high fashion this fall. Newly elegant and dressy, they feature in collections from the likes of Givenchy, Tod’s, Zegna and Hermès, brands more associated with millionaires than Metallica. 

Rocker tight these are not. They’re being proposed as a suave, sensual and comfortable alternative to chinos, cargo pants and tailored trousers. Some feature high waists to elongate legs or pleats to conjure old-school élan worthy of Cary Grant. Many are cut extremely wide. Nick Paget, senior menswear strategist at trend forecasting firm WGSN, attributes the leather look to a post-Covid desire for sensual dressing. After lockdowns, he said, people “seemed to need a hit…of expressive sexuality.”