Leather Turns Soft and Sexy

By Michael Demarest

With bright colors and elegant designs for all seasons, skin is In

Men and women have worn animal skins since clothing was invented, but leather clothing was never considered high fashion--unless the fur was left on. Nowadays, however, leather and its nappy obverse, suede, have been transformed into glamorous materials that can be used for any garment, from bikinis to evening wear. Thanks to new techniques, stiff, bulky skins can be cut almost paper-thin and butter-soft. And they are dyed almost any color. As a result, leather will be ubiquitous this spring. Says Vogue Editor in Chief Grace Mirabella: "Suede is the fashion. It is the star of the season."

Giorgio Armani, the Italian designer who has been placing increasing emphasis on skins since he first used them in his 1976 collection, explains: "Leather now has sex appeal. The difference between leather and fur is that fur is just a dead animal one carries around, while leather falls and folds on the body to become a second skin."

Designers, in fact, now put suede and leather in the same category as silk, cotton, linen and wool, calling it a "fabric" and using it flexibly. (Suede, the roughened flesh side of leather, was first used in 1884 in Sweden for gloves. The French called them gants de Suede--gloves of Sweden.) Moreover, since the new ultrathin suedes and leathers "breathe" more easily, they are as comfortable on a summer evening as in winter. Calvin Klein, the leading evangelist of leather in the U.S., has increased the use of suede and leather for the past five years. "A beautiful something in suede," he says, "is more like a collector's item than a piece of clothing." Ralph Lauren and Anne Klein both use suede and leather extensively for knickers and culottes, skirts both mini and long, T shirts and strapless tops.

One of the most successful designers in leather is New Yorker Carol Horn, whose comfortable, stylish clothes are priced on the low end of the scale. Her suede T shirts sell for $210; her most expensive entry is a ruffled suede dress for $322. "People are taking to leather," she says, "because they're responding to something real, the way they respond to 100% wool."

Armani, part of whose spring collection, at least 15%, will be composed of leather pieces, has designed a series of jackets of all lengths. Says he: "Colors will be intense and surprising. There will be Bermudas, vests, shirts, suede pullovers worked with inlays of different colors inspired by knitwear."

Leather also lends itself to fine detailing. Armani's creations for Italy's Mario Valentino print, stripe and weave leather to resurrect a rich Renaissance look. Bill Blass also uses a weave effect on some blouses, and Ralph Lauren has put ruffles on suede in delicate peasant blouses. Says he: "Feathery-light blouses that once were made of cotton can now be done in suede. And it can mix with anything--silk, a sweater, tweeds, linen or cotton." The new leather, made ideally from the South African hair sheep, comes in starbursts of colors: fire-engine red, hot and soft pink, vivid green, fuchsia, indigo blue, yellow, apricot, jade, turquoise and purple. The thinness of the leather and the satiny texture are due mainly to the use of new lubricating oils and chemicals in the tanning process. The new lubricants permit the leather to be cut thinner while retaining its inherent strength and softness. The bright colors are simply a result of demand.

David Trask, whose opulent The Leather Club boutique in Beverly Hills sells nothing but skins, points out that a well-chosen leather piece can be a pivotal garment. He explains: "Women can work with their old wardrobe by buying one pair of leather pants or a suede T shirt, and update their look for the next year."

Leather is expensive: a Lauren prairie skirt costs $1,000; a leather blazer from Yves St. Laurent also carries a $1,000 tag. But leather jackets with embroidered eagles, by Parisian Designer Claude Montana, priced at up to $2,400, sold out in two weeks last fall at Bloomingdale's in New York. Retailers report that the priciest items sell best. Alan Bilzerian, owner of two stores in Boston and Worcester, Mass., claims: "The customer wants one incredible piece. This will become a piece from the '80s, the way a Bauhaus or Corbusier was a piece from the 1930s." On the other hand, most leatherwise observers will also agree with Dawn Mello, executive vice president of Bergdorf Goodman: "The thing a woman wants to own now is something in leather, just as she had to have jeans when blue jeans were new and fit just perfectly. But there's more. A woman wants leather because of the quality factor--it's an investment. It's going to wear well."

Indeed, a well-made leather garment will last ten to 15 years. It travels well and does not wrinkle easily. And leather seldom if ever has to be cleaned. Exults Arleen Sorkin, a Manhattan actress-model: "When I was wearing silk, the dry cleaner loved me. When I was wearing white cotton, the Chinese laundry loved me. Now I have a $300 chamois dress and, you know, it's hand washable. It's also great for cleaning records." Some leather buffs use an art gum eraser on stains, while others maintain that leather should be permitted, like a fine old wine, to mellow, undisturbed. Calvin Klein agrees. He has been wearing the same Calvin Klein suede shirt for more than five years.

--By Michael Demarest. Reported by Georgia Harbison/New York, with other bureaus

With reporting by Georgia Harbison, other bureaus

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