Belstaff Stour leather jacket in black

The most important element with any leather jacket is the leather itself. 

 

The Belstaff Stour's leather is heavily grained or 'pebbled'. At one motorcycle factory that I visited many years ago, I was told that when they 'stamped' the leather to give it a pebbled finish it was because they were using lower grade skins, and that the stamping of a pattern on the leather allowed them to hide the imperfections.

 

But that's not always why leather gets stamped. Sometimes hides gets stamped because the texturing prevents the leather from showing marks when it's used or worn. And that is what is going on here, we reckon. After all, grainy leather is used by some of the fashion world's most respected brands. It is used on lots of high-end handbags, for example. And you can bet that the likes of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Hermes and Chanel are not using 'stamped' leathers to hide their imperfections. These guys use the world's best and most expensive leathers money can buy.

 

The bottom line here, however, is that the leather on the Stour is incredibly soft and supple. The leather is not without substance, but this is not the kind of jacket that is going to need to be worn to soften up. I've got jackets like that; and 10 years down the road they're still haven't moulded to my shape. But right out of the bag the Stour feels like an old friend. It is super comfortable; super comfortable in a way that a motorcycle jacket perhaps has no right to be. Yet it is accredited to the AA standard for abrasion resistance; and that's all that one might ask for in a jacket that's clearly designed to be worn as much off the bike as on it.

 

The armour is the older, heavier, LP1 D30. It is level 1, but it kind of suits a more substantial jacket like this; and certainly you can barely feel it. You could upgrade it Level 2 Diablo for a tad extra comfort and weight saving, but in truth it wouldn't make a huge difference in terms of wearability. If you wanted a back protector, we'd probably go for the Level 2 Rheon one; right now it's the nicest.

 

In terms of the detailing, you get BELSTAFF written out in script across the chest in appliquéd leather letters. On the sleeve there's a squared-up black leather badge. On the back there's a pretty huge Belstaff Phoenix logo. Now all of that might sound a bit garish and over-branded, but in reality, as it's all tone-on-tone it's actually quite subtle. From 10 metres nobody will see the logos; but get close up and nobody will be in any doubt about whose jacket you're wearing. Usually we're not one from over branding, but on the Stour it kind of works.

 

On the shoulders and elbows you get secondary layers of leather. This helps from an abrasion-resistance perspective, but it's also a style statement. It says biker!

 

The collar has a very small upstand; it fastens with a popper. The zip is a stealth-black affair; and at the bottom there's a leather flap to prevent the bike's tank from getting scratched. The back of the jacket has a slightly lowered and curved tail. And of course this would have been the hallmark of any proper biking jacket from the fifties and sixties when bike jackets were worn by those who actually rode bikes, as opposed to those who want to walk around looking like they ride a bike.

 

At the waist, on both flanks, there's a belt and buckle arrangement to allow the hem to be cinched in a little. At the ends of the sleeves you will also find zips; again with leather flaps with poppers. Both the collar and the sleeve ends are lined with corduroy.

 

In terms of pockets you get two hand-warmer style zipped pockets on the outside, and one Napoleon pocket on the inside.

 

I don't know why, but a lot of people seem to want to know what a jacket is lined with. Well, the Stour has a simple black acetate lining. There’s no Belstaff tartan going on here. Inside the jacket you also get a series of belt loops that will allow you to secure the jacket to the belt on your jeans. Personally, I can't see anyone using them. This is the kind of jacket you're going to always want to look ineffably cool in. And undoing the belt loops when you take the jacket off simply won't pass muster.

 

Obviously this is a Belstaf leather jacket, so it's horribly expensive. But what's new?

 

I've kind of given up trying to justify prices. The fact is that Infinity, J&S et al. probably offer jackets that do the same job as the Stour for under £200. Heck, I reckon they probably do some for less than a ton!

 

But despite what the man from Bennett's might have you believe not everything can be reduced to a simple value for money equation.

 

It's the same in all walks of life. Is the £5,000 dark blue Savile Row suit really worth ten times the price of a dark blue suit found in a Peterborough shopping centre? Is a 160 mph Porsche worth twice the price of a BMW that is just as fast. Is it worth paying for a seat in First Class that costs twenty times as much as one in Economy?

 

Something is worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it. And sometimes people are prepared to pay a huge premium because they know that the rest of us can't afford it. That's simply the way the world works. Luxury goods are not about value for money. They are about exclusivity, and about sending a message.

 

There's no way that I can, hand on heart, say that the Stour jacket is worth its £1000 price ticket. To many people it won't be. To some it will represent little more than a rip off. Others simply won't give the price a second thought.

 

All I can say is that the Stour is a lovely jacket. It feels luxurious and special in the way that I imagine the interior of a modern Rolls Royce or Bentley does. If that's the kind of exclusivity you're looking for, you will love the Stour. If, by contrast, you want the highest CE rating for the minimum outlay, in all likelihood you probably won't!