The leather jacket has been the same jacket for so long that most people assume that is the only version. It is not, and the alternatives are considerably more useful. A leather blazer does the job of a wool blazer with more weight and a harder edge, and it works over a dress in a way a biker never has. A leather shirt jacket or overshirt is the softest of the family, unlined or lightly lined, and behaves like a heavy shirt rather than outerwear. A collarless or single breasted leather coat is the most formal end and the one that reads expensive most reliably. All three sit better over knitwear than a biker, because a biker is cut close to the body by design and a jumper underneath ruins the line.

The hide matters more than the label. Lambskin is the softest and the thinnest and it scuffs and stretches, which is the point if you want a jacket that moulds to you and a problem if you want it to hold a shape. Calfskin is heavier, holds structure and is what you want in a tailored piece. Suede is the most fragile and the most beautiful and should not be your only jacket. Look at the lining while you are there, because a fully lined jacket will hang correctly and slide over a knit, while an unlined one drags on every sleeve. And check the shoulder seam sits on your shoulder, since leather cannot be let out or taken in the way cloth can, and a badly placed shoulder is permanent.

We would put the money into a leather blazer before a biker at almost any budget, because it covers more occasions and dates far more slowly. The other thing we have learned is to buy leather in a colour other than black at least once, since a chocolate, tan or oxblood leather jacket looks considered rather than default and sits more comfortably next to navy and cream. Fit should be judged with a jumper on, not a t shirt, because the jumper is the harder test. If you take one thing away, choose the jacket by what you will wear underneath it, and the biker stops looking like the obvious answer.