Hell for Leather

[N.B. Images of my own leather shorts are still to come, so these are a few mood board-style reference ones to get you in the right frame of mind. To me, leather is more broodingly sexy and well worn rather than chavvy...]

I must admit that I’m a sucker for leather – yes, it’s not the most politically correct thing to say in the 21st century, but I just can’t help myself, so I was naturally thrilled when leather shorts began to pepper the pages of magazines and websites that I love. Sadly, this trend seems to be exclusive to London at the moment and, when I spied three pairs of leather-topped legs on Oxford Street, my eyes were being positively greedy. River Island’s black pairs were snapped up after Fashion’s Night Out in the capital, as the fashion pack has cottoned on to the versatility of this piece. Leather shorts work well alongside chiffon blouses, baggy jumpers, or a simple white t-shirt, as was the case with the three street examples I spotted; the important thing to let this piece speak for itself and not to team it with any other attention-grabbing item. You are flashing more than enough leg flesh without looking like a meat market (plus the vegetarians will already be after you for wearing leather, so let’s not provoke them further). Of course, there are some great synthetic alternatives which don’t leave you smelling like the bag department in Primark, so don’t rule them out until you’ve tried them.

My own exploits with leather shorts began when, frustrated at the lack of affordable high street options, I trawled Ebay and bought a black faux-leather pair of trousers. After cutting and hemming them (which was quite easy due to the flexibility of the fabric, but still a time-consuming job), they're still a little tighter than I'd have liked, so I'll either have to expand them with side panels or lose some weight. Probably the former.

Anyway, the images above are of an Edinburgh alleyway and some of my doodles with black spray paint before my final art project earlier this year.