I generally prefer brown leather to black, but own both.
My first (p)leather jacket was a brown bomber I got when I was about 14. The guys at the other end of the block were able to afford the real thing. I wasn't, and the pleather was half the cost of a new leather, $20 vs $40, big money back then. We wore them with fishing hats. It was cool then, Looks ridiculous now.
As I was finishing high school, and had a part time job, I was able to purchase my first real leather jacket. I got a Cooper bomber.
When I started riding bikes full time, around 1983, I began with the bomber, but it was ill-suited to riding, or so I thought, and I began to look into a real motorcycle jacket. All I knew of at the time was the 'Brando'-style jacket, and I got a Schott and wore that for many years. It was followed by an Excelled, and another no-name jobby with fringes on the back and down the bottoms of the sleeves.
Many years later, I got a great deal on an almost new cafe style black leather with white piping across the back, chest and upper arms. This one fits beautifully, and seals up better than anything else (leather) I have ridden in.
For 26 years, I wore black leather predominantly (I also have a yellow-bodied, black sleeved Icon Moto cafe-style jacket), as black is the best color for motorcycling, for all of the aforementioned reasons in this thread.
My next brown leather jacket was a fluke purchase - a homemade Indiana Jones jacket. I got it on ebay for relatively little money. It's far from perfect, but it fits, is heavy duty cowhide, and is distressed enough to look genuinely, um, distressed.
I have since purchased a couple of cheap brown leather car coats off the 'bay. They're a bit shiny, but I like them, regardless.
I also inherited a black car coat from my stbx, which was her father's. It has since been returned to her for obvious reasons.
When do I wear black vs. brown? Simple. When I am dressing in monochromatics, I wear black. When I dress in earth tones, I wear brown. Which do I prefer? Definitely brown, but I like black as well.
Yesterday I happened into a store that had a nice selection of old leather jackets (predominately black). I've never been into the cafe racer style as I don't ride and prefer a collar to the mandarin style. I tried on vintage Schott, Brooks, and Kehoe. The prices were steep, but the thing that stood out to me was the patina/ wear marks. They were grey! I think I prefer the black tea-core style that shows the brown underneath coat when worn in.
The Kehoe sure was nice though
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