The Lady in the Leather Coat Now and Then

 The Lady in the Leather Coat Now and Then

I was twenty-six years old in 1999. I was in the last year of earning my professional degree. I got my very first email account in 1999 and it would be another two years before I started the Lady in the Leather Coat group page online. Less than one third of the US population owned a cell phone and I don’t recall if I did yet. Y2K was a serious concern and late night comedians made humorous predictions of what life would be like in the year 2000. Everybody watched Seinfeld and Friends on TV. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was the blockbuster movie of the summer, and a new science fiction film called The Matrix was a hit at the box office as well.

My taste for ladies in leather coats was well developed by this time. Leather fashion had been popular for most of my life and reached its peak. Mail order catalogs offered leather jackets, skirts, and pants practically year-round. City sidewalks were a visual feast of feminine leather beauty. The countless number of attractive women who swept about their daily lives in gleaming full length leather coats boggles my mind to even think about. I fervently daydreamed of being with such a sophisticated lady, but such an sleek siren seemed utterly out of my league in 1999.

That would change when I met a beautiful woman in 2004 who buttoned up a black leather maxi coat with carefree aplomb and made it a regular part of her wardrobe. The lady in the leather coat was no longer a mere fantasy for me. She became my wife and she rocked the look longer and better than any other woman I have ever known.

As it turned out, the prevalence of ladies’ leather coats climaxed simultaneous to my life experience with them and this can be attributed at least in part to the success of The Matrix in 1999. Carrie-Anne Moss played Trinity, slick and deadly as she swirled against gravity with a floor-length silhouette of liquid black vinyl. Initially her costume caused leather coats to surge with their greatest popularity ever. No other fashion statement could be more edgy, cool, or sexy. Online shopping was just taking off in those early years of the new millennium and clothing retailers marketed leather coats with the “Matrix” tag non-stop.

The Matrix was not alone in promoting this aesthetic. Underworld was released in 2003 featuring gorgeous Kate Beckinsale in a floor-length black leather duster. Both of these movies spawned a franchise of sequels, and along with television series like Dark Angel, The Pretender, and La Femme Nikita, ultimately succeeded at transforming the image of an attractive woman in a long leather coat from elegant and luxurious to campy and overdone.

And then, almost overnight, the lady in the leather coat was... gone!

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