Two Russian brothers, Irving and Jack Schott, founded a leather clothing design company after emigrating to the United States. The perfecto’s crazy adventure didn’t start until 1928, after an order from Harley Davidson’s reseller Beck Distributors. Because of a lack of safety in the clothing available for motorcyclists, the following criteria was given: impermeability and resistance. This jacket with a cleft down the middle was attached to a new aesthetic: short, belted, and incredibly innovative with the first use of a zipper on a leather jacket.
A number of illustrious celebrities would pick it up, like Clark Gable, the first to wear his perfecto in public in 1934. But its glory would reach its peak in 1953. The most outrageously influential film of the day, Laslo Benedek’s “The Wild One”, shattered the conformism of the 50s by putting Marlon Brando front and center in a furiously violent epic. It was a counter example that was deplored in its time, just like “Rebel Without A Cause”, featuring a rebellious James Dean. Teenagers would join the movement and make it the incarnation of personal freedom and the denial of the taboos that were particular to an era of reconstruction. In the post-war era, still full of suffering, the perfecto became their rallying banner. But since it went hand-in-hand with an image of “bad boy” delinquance, it was banned in several schools. In fact, an indissoluble example of this new generation in the United States is incarnated in the Boozefighters, Californians with their shoulders brutally harnessed by perfectos. In France, the fashion wouldn’t take long to manifest itself through what were called the “Loulous”, or the “Black jackets”, a name given by the newspaper France-Soir on July 17th, 1959, in light of the damage caused by these bands of young people on their motorbikes. In the same vein as in America, it was from them that French rock took off. Following these outbursts, fashion started to take inspiration from the streets, as evidenced by the last Dior collection presented by Yves Saint Laurent in 1960, called the Beat Look. Indeed, the couturier did a humorous take on the leather jacket in reference to the “Black jackets” that were terrorizing the streets. Even though the jackets were very feminine, he was accused of straying too far from Dior’s clientele, which would eventually be one of the reasons for his departure. As for the following decade, it was full of new movements, starting with the punk generation. Leather was just as indestructible as their demands, and the perfecto became the raw and spontaneous expression of a time and space that was far from popular conventions. The Ramones sported it on the cover of their album, just like Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols’ second bass player.
Thirty years later? Conventional but no less imaginative fashion designers are once more adopting the perfecto. Balenciaga is at the forefront, purifying the perfecto right after the revolution of their barrel line and their rebellious shortening of the baby doll dress. Certain original elements, like the shoulder pads and the diagonal zipper on the front, are carefully preserved. When its “bad boy” side tired fashion pioneers, it only took a few years for Nicolas Ghesquière, then Balenciaga’s creative director, to turn it on its head and make it the prerogative of women on a quest for defeminization. The fashion planet was also sent reeling by another harshly created interpretation: Hedi Slimane, creative director for Saint Laurent Paris, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor to develop the punk rock spirit mixed with elegance and impertinence that he picked up from his years in London and subsequently perfectly adapted to the Parisian spirit of Saint Laurent. The designer innovates and shakes up the stolid elegance that had beset this French brand that was always avant-garde at heart. And so, in both a men’s and a women’s version, the Motorcycle Jacket frees itself from the rules and exudes the spirit of revolt that sticks to its very skin. Riding on a 90s wave, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Kim Gordon, and Ariel Pink were the muses for the Spring/Summer 2013 ad campaign and endorsed the famous Saint Laurent perfecto with its “fit” cut in a pure decor. Hedi Slimane gives us a new take on the perfecto, screaming with elegant rebellion in a perfectly oxymoronical equation.
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