By Robin Dutt

The Leather Biker Jacket has proved not a trend item but a style staple.  Skin up and be brave enough to mix it with a pinstripe suit but wear only the waistcoat and trousers.  The two very different provenances work a curiously effective magic.  If you stretched to a Balmain example from last season you don’t need to read this.  That was a forever piece.  Immaculate.  But there is still hope.  Check out the goods from Burberry to Sandro, The Kooples to Portobello Market on a Friday especially where one vendor has several examples dating from the 1960s in indispensible black, red, blue and many other hues.  £3,000 will set you off in Paris catwalk style.  Vintage from about £100 may suit a few more budgets.