Cool Girls Confirmed That This Leather Jacket Trend Makes Your Basic Boots Look Better
Back when Brat summer started in 2024, after Charli XCX released the album that would propel her to mainstream pop girl stardom, a singular accessory emerged as a symbol of the album's hyperpop aesthetic. It was a tall boot, in pure black instead of the album's now famous shade of punchy slime green.
It is still the footwear Charli herself is most likely to be spotted in, almost always coupled with a pair of black shades. At her Brat tour, hundreds of girls would descend into the arena wearing black boots, an uncommon choice for a sweaty evening that involved dancing alongside thousands of strangers for hours on end. But it worked. It became a signifier of Charli's specific brand of cool.
Charli has since continued dressing in her uniform, long after Brat summer was over (although her film The Moment did give us a Bratty beginning to the year). Last night while at the London premiere of the film, she wore an outfit that feels so quintessentially her it's hard to imagine anyone else wearing it: an August Barron leather jacket ruched at the hip with long black leather boots that hit above her knee by the same brand.
What we love most about the look is that the leather jacket helps elevate the boots to a more unexpected place. The boots have become so much her signature that they are a little too anticipated, they don't jump out when you see her in them. They don't get a reaction. But when paired with this jacket, ruched just so at the hips with a flair that jets out in a similar silhouette to a peplum, they feel new again.
That specific kind of leather jacket silhouette, that feels more flowy than stiff, is also trending for the transitional season ahead, thanks to brands like August Barron but also Phoebe Philo and Isabel Marant. Leather jackets are tough but when rendered in this more feminine shape, they feel less so. Instead, they become the perfect mix of hard and soft. And they're guaranteed to make your basic boots feel less basic in a way even Charli XCX would endorse.
Shop the leather jacket trend, below.
