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What can black or brown do for you?

Jrolfe

A-List Customer
Messages
348
Black and brown jackets will probably never go out of style, but some of the manufacturers out there are going crazy with all sorts of colors. It’s hard to keep up. Red, russet, oxblood, cordavan, yellow, midnight blue, ... I recently seen a “olive” from Aero. I actually really dig the color! Not over the top & loud, well maybe for some but I think it’s cool! What are your guys thoughts about this?
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Guppy

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,337
Location
Cleveland, OH
In general, I prefer more natural looking colors. Granted, black is not really a natural color, and most of the browns we see are dyed that color. I like colored leather to be an off-brown, like what cordovan and russet are, basically brown with a touch of red or purple.

The olive color from Freewheelers is a lot more interesting to me, it's darker and almost brownish. After you see this color, I don't think you can ever go back to the olive green that LW or Aero offer and seriously consider it. But that's just me.

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Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
I'm conservative - I wear mainly black clothing. It means I don't have to think about what I wear and I don't much like colour. Plaid or checks makes me nauseous. I would wear a dark olive or navy leather jacket (but I wouldn't bother to order one) and I do wear darker browns but most of my leathers are black. Brown jackets often remind me of the 1980's Indiana Jones, Banana Republic flight jacket look.
 

dudewuttheheck

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,406
@Guppy yeah I really love that dark olive Freewheelers leather. Unfortunately that model did not fit me well, but the leather was awesome in person too.
 

Mich486

One Too Many
Messages
1,690
Badalassi
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I do prefer leather in black and dark browns. I’m not really draw to other colours. Burgundy leather I like to look at but I’m not sure I’d enjoy wearing it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dav

One Too Many
Messages
1,706
Location
Somerset, England
I thought exactly the same regarding burgundy until I got some boots, my opinion has changed though now I love it, not been brave enough to order a jacket yet though. My biggest concern was that it wouldn't go with my brown jackets, wrong it works with all of them.
As for others colours, I really like the olive, Aero showed a beautiful B-10 in it a while back that I really liked, still not ordered yet though.
 

Sloan1874

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,427
Location
Glasgow
I tend to the opinion that black is a bit of a 'blah' leather and rather limiting - brown and cordovan are much more flexible and tend to age more interestingly. I do like olive, but I would agree that an olive with more brown tones is a much more wearable colour.
 

zebedee

One Too Many
Messages
1,904
Location
Shanghai
I only have one black leather jacket, and that's a Stockman- I reckon that black is better for shorter jackets, otherwise there just seems to be too much of it. The Stockman's easily the best pattern for a harsh winter, though.
 
Messages
11,158
Location
SoCal
Thedi’s Verde Deerskin is a really nice color.
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I also have 1 black jacket (P. Highwayman) and I think it works well for the design. My others are all dark browns. I love the idea of blue, but I didn’t wear it... I wear olive drab cotton jackets and shirts all the time. I feel Aero’s olive is too light for my skin tone.
 
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nick123

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,371
Location
California
I actually had a jacket from Aero's olive. Here's the scoop IMO...it looked a little "painted on". Not necessarily a bad thing given the color, being that bold, the color is the leather's merit.

But an olive or navy will somewhat take attention away from the more organic features of a leather you tend to notice more in browns or earthy colors.
 

zebedee

One Too Many
Messages
1,904
Location
Shanghai
I am sure that this has been asked, but why is black-dyed leather ubiquitous? Did it originally hide scars, or was it due to black dyes being easy to make? I have no idea.
 

Dr H

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,007
Location
Somerset, UK
I have the Journeyman in Jet Black deerskin, which is a pebbled grain and satin finish, which gives it plenty of depth. The goatskin is a warm brown, based on the colour of the Gordon & Ferguson M-422.
 

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