The suede jacket is one of those comebacks that everyone can wear

In the great return and general appreciation for vintage, the fascination for the suede jacket emerges, a garment long kept in the dark in the most remote corner of the wardrobe and relegated to the more relaxed outfits of uncles and dads on free outings on weekends in the mid-seasons. Thanks to the course of the 2024/25 winter trends we can announce that this is no longer the case. The collections say so, the celebs confirm it. At the moment the brown suede jacket is one of the wardrobe items to be re-evaluated because not only is it beautiful in the new revisited versions but it is even more fascinating and full of experience if it is an original vintage garment from the past. Once it was called a reindeer jacket, for women and men, today it is fine to define it as a suede or suede leather jacket . But how does this type of leather that is so soft to the touch come about? Suede leather is the internal surface of a tanned animal skin that can be used with the suede and hairy side on the outside as is, for example, the deerskin worn by North American Indians; if instead the leather is split and the top grain removed, the suede is hairy on both sides and can be used as a much lighter and more flexible material. The cinematic reference here is a must: both Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider and Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy (Midnight Cowboy), both films from 1969, wear wonderful suede jackets with fringes. Their characters dressed in this way are associated with a life on the road, free and rebellious, in close contact with nature. Every shade of brown suede leather carries with it fragments of that life, just as it would today. Worn, lived, embellished with details, stitching and pockets, the vintage or new reindeer jacket is one of those pieces that knows no expiration date to remain active elements of the next looks.

Before scrolling through the suede jacket trends for winter 2024 , it is worth making another cinematic reference, this time more recent, which makes the use of the deerskin jacket an element of obsession and fascination: Le Daim (Double Skin) by Quentin Dupieux (also the signature of Daaaaaalì! on the Catalan surrealist artist) with a fabulous neo-cowboy Jean Dujardin particularly determined to pursue his goals covered in suede.

It is not enough to say suede jacket to categorize the phenomenon that is infecting everyone's wardrobes. There are substantial differences that borrow timeless fits and volumes like the jackets of American Indians with fringes and pockets. They are the new contemporary folk versions of the winter jackets by Coach and Isabel Marant . Then there is the short women's reindeer jacket with elastic ribbed profiles as was used in the years of protest in the 70s, as long as that sartorial bon ton of bourgeois origin did not disappear. So it is not strange that Miu Miu has introduced several of them into the collection; there is also the brown suede jacket borrowed from the motorcycle one with diagonally placed zip pockets and lapels with snap buttons by Moschino . Matthieu Blazy for Bottega Veneta lightens it to the point of making it become a real shirt, the shacket, with the characteristics of an autumn jacket.

Demi Moore has just shown it off during one of the promotional stops for Landman , the new Paramount+ series set in Texas which focuses on the search for fortune in the contemporary era of oil rigs. A project together with Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm of Mad Men which somehow has a connection with the style of the suede jacket. How did she choose to match it? By exploiting the seventies codes of the tailored suit made in a thicker and more rigid material in shape, over a shirt with a collar and bow with a decidedly hippie-romantic soul. The truth is that wherever the suede jacket is combined it is always a great contrasting effect where folk and contemporary elegance finally manage to meet. With shirts, baggy jeans or layered, the suede jacket offers a country taste that takes on the specter of the cowboy, the adventurer, the rebel and the hero.

Finally, two clever inspos to maximize the performance of the suede jacket in this winter 2024/25. Take advantage of the warm and vibrant colour by combining it with a tone-on-tone bag, or by working in harmony with another very trendy shade burgundy.