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Original poster

Leather biker - classic or middle-aged Mum cliche?

26 replies

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 10:38

I have worn a biker for years (literally since my teens so not just since they've been fashionable) and yesterday got a brilliant bargain in the shape of a new real leather one at 50% off. I love it, it suits and flatters me and goes with everything I own from jeans to going out dresses. I know I'll wear it loads.

I'm just a bit concerned though that they've become a bit of a cliche for women of my age - I wore my (pleather so not as nice) one to go out last week and felt ever so slightly 'Loose Women' iykwim. Maybe it's down to what you wear it with?

I dont want to spend over £100 on something I'm not sure about but if I love it should I give a toss?

OP posts:

PeoniesforMissAnnersley · 22/01/2017 10:39

Well I'm 31 and have no kids and love mine I think they work for all ages and it just depends what you wear them with

CuppaTeaAndAJammieDodger · 22/01/2017 10:40

Link please :)

Notinmybackyard · 22/01/2017 11:10

I don't think age matters, wear what you feel good in. You are going to feel more confident wearing leather, rather than "pleather"? I know I do. Bit confused because you say that you've bought it, then say "should I spend over £100?"

Original poster

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 11:30

I bought it because I didn't want to miss out but I haven't taken the tags off so could potentially return .

It was from Label Lab at House of Fraser, £250 down to £120. Not sure if it's on their website but their sale ends today so better be quick if you want to snap one up.

OP posts:

GlacindaTheTroll · 22/01/2017 11:43

I think classic.

It may well drop out of fashion, but won't go away. Because some people (like you and I) have been wearing them lifelong and expect to continue to do so, and it won't seem any more 'wrong' then than it did before.

madmomma · 22/01/2017 12:11

Not a cliché just a classic. Doesn't suit everyone though, as many classics don't. O look a dick in anything 'classic'. No idea why.

Original poster

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 12:16

Generally I look a right old frump in anything 'classic' but I think (hope!) these suit me :).

OP posts:

ActuallyThatsSUPREMECommander · 22/01/2017 12:20

Interesting question OP. I've been musing on it myself because I have a biker jacket dating from my teens which I'm considering resurrecting. Unfortunately it's not a soft casual wear one, it's made of very thick, very stiff cow (or possibly rhinoceros) so it won't look 21st century let alone "this season". On the upside it has a) authenticity b) sentimental value c) I live in a dodgy area of south London and it can genuinely double up as a stab vest.

RemusLupinsChristmasMovie · 22/01/2017 12:21

Who cares? If you like it, wear it and enjoy it. I love all of mine - in fact, I may buy another one this year.

Original poster

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 12:45

Actually - both excellent reasons!

OP posts:

Floisme · 22/01/2017 14:07

Wouldn't it be great if we just wore clothes we loved and that flattered us without feeling the need to get our choices validated by younger women? I've done the same myself so I'm not having a pop but why should it matter if they're popular with middle aged women?

As regards whether they'll date: I think at some point they will but then I think everything dates. Even classics fall out of fashion from time to time. In the nineties (or was it the noughties?) everyone was wearing those single breasted leather blazers. 'Classic' we said, 'An investment. They'll be around forever'. Only they weren't. However things also come back around again and I'm sure that'll happen with bikers too. In the meantime I would just enjoy it and work it hard - whatever you do, don't save it for best.

CountFosco · 22/01/2017 15:23

In the nineties (or was it the noughties?) everyone was wearing those single breasted leather blazers

I had a suede one. I loved it. MIL has a photo up at her house of a very fresh faced DH and me standing outside their house and I was wearing it then. Sigh.

Floisme is right as always (I'm beginning to think of you as the AnyFucker of Fashion). I actually think one of the things that has changed since I we were teenagers is that fashion isn't just for the young any more. In fact I suspect we've gone back to the pre-60s and it's really only the middle aged that can afford to keep up with fashion properly. So 'middle-aged Mums' are actually where it's at.

AuntieStella · 22/01/2017 15:36

"we were teenagers is that fashion isn't just for the young any more"

I don't think it ever was.

But generation after generation of self-absorbed youth (me included) have thought that. And then eventually realised it's not all about them.

Even in the 1960s (and yes, I do remember them) 'youth' was a label/shorthand for a change in fashion that went across old ages. OK, then as now only the firm of flesh and confident would wear very short/revealing clothes. But the general shapes went across generations.

Just wondering, btw, when you were a teenager (want to think about what I was wearing and how fashionable it was)

Floisme · 22/01/2017 15:55

Lordy CountFosco

Undeserved but most kind.

I actually find it a bit disconcerting to see daughters and mothers dressed alike. But I don't regard that as the parents' fault and I don't swallow the line that we ought to take ourselves off to the land of twin sets. All we're doing is wearing - roughly - the same kind of clothes we've always worn. I think it's up to young people to break away and create their own look and for whatever reason, this generation hasn't done that.

In some ways I wish they would, even though it would blast me into fashion irrelevance. I like watching what people wear and I'm bored rigid with all the sameness.

Original poster

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 15:56

I'm 43 so was a teen in the late 80s/early 90s. My very first biker jacket was a proper used one that I bought from a bike show then sold a few years later for beer money .

I have had them on and off over the years but only got really keen on them again recently, partly because they're fashionable I guess but also because I've come out of what I think of as my clueless mum years - think many people with young kids will identify with this - and started dressing how I really want to instead of being constrained by time/budget/trying to fit into what I thought a mum should look like. I've realised I liked them back then for a reason and I still do. Although I am clearly also more interested in what that makes people think of me than I should be!

OP posts:

Original poster

SomewhereNow · 22/01/2017 16:00

And yes, the idea of dressing the same as my teen DD fills me with horror - but at the same time I don't want to dress like my Mum either.

I think the lines are quite blurred these days - teens wear skinny jeans and DMs and biker jackets and the older generation no longer dress from the back pages of the Sunday supplement!

Finding a look that feels right for someone in their 40s but doesn't overlap either side can be really tricky. I don't want to dress like 'a grown up' but trying to still pull off what I could at 17 isn't right either (and DD looks much better in most of it than me!)

OP posts:

Floisme · 22/01/2017 16:14

I think we worry about it far too much.
As for teenagers - like I've said, I think they're the ones who are copying us, not the other way round. I think it's up to them to find their own identity and their own look.

JustGettingStarted · 22/01/2017 16:17

Not if you pair it with a good death metal or grindcore tee shirt.

But not Norwegian black metal. That's just "trying too hard."

FrustratedFrugal · 22/01/2017 16:32

I think that leather bikers have been enthusiastically embraced by slightly more mature women - I have two. But I feel they are just right for me - solid and substantial but not stuffy. I feel good wearing them.

Floisme I've just started wearing a wool pinstripe jacket from the 1990s that seems to be having a moment - and I enjoy knowing that mine is the real thing in a sea of 1990s inspired fashions

ChishandFips33 · 22/01/2017 16:38

I think something like the biker comes in and out of the wardrobe as needed - it will always be around but you just choose to wear other things at different times

I'm 40 and have just discovered biker style leather jackets - felt weird at first and seemed to wear me rather than the other way round - gradually I'm owning it and I like it!

There's things in my wardrobe from 10/20 years ago that come out every now and again

As my dad used to say - if it's not eating any meat, keep it - if you need the space for something else, get rid

niminypiminy · 22/01/2017 16:41

So 'middle-aged Mums' are actually where it's at.

In the running for my favourite MN sentence ever.

Floisme · 22/01/2017 16:44

Frugal that sounds great. Sadly, bikers don't suit me as much as I thought they would but I'm in love with my Harris tweed jacket at the moment

ChishandFips33 · 22/01/2017 16:56

'Middle aged mums' acronym - MAM's!

MadameCholetsDirtySecret · 22/01/2017 17:02

I have a DKNY and a Reiss leather jacket and wear them a lot. I'm older than you but don't give a damn if I'm a cliche. Who cares what anyone thinks about what you wear?

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 22/01/2017 17:24

Actually that made me laugh

I always think if you are comfortable wearing it and think you look good, then you can style it out.
If you feel self conscious in something, it shows and the garment 'wears you'.

What I'm trying to say in some sort of deep insightful way is, YES if you like it, wear it.

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