Guardians of the Galaxy to Star Wars: The legends of the leather jackets – in numbers

Leather jackets have been worn by fictional heroes and real-life stars alike.

And though the jacket doesn’t make the man, it certainly lends him an air of je ne sais quois.

Or her, for that matter. Plenty of women, real and fictional, have also donned a leather jacket as anything from a fashion statement to armour.

As you can see in the graphic below from Lakeland Leather, the jackets are a signature look for a number of characters.

Take Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride aka Black Mamba in Quentin Tarantino’s hit movie Kill Bill – released in 2013.

Beatrix’s signature yellow leather jacket is now an icon of female empowerment and vengeance, shorthand for a woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

The leather jacket was also a symbol of her evolution, from Deadly Viper Assassination Squad member to bride to a mother who will do anything to get to her daughter.

But not all leather jackets are worn as armour, some are simply fashion statements.

Take Danny Zuko in Grease (1978) whose leather jacket is both a super cool fashion statement and a tribal sign.

And when Sandy finally dons her own leather jacket, it signals an acceptance into the group.

Marvel makes excellent use of the leather jacket – from Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) to Black Widow in Avengers Assemble (2012), the signature clothing item defines them.

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star Lord’s leather jacket is a symbol of his rebelliousness, his otherness from the rest of the Marvel superheroes.

Scarlett Johansson’s costume for Black Widow, much like Sandy’s acceptance of the leather jacket in Grease, brings her into the fold of heroes rather than making her stand out.

The 1999 film Fight Club sees Tyler Durden don his signature maroon red leather jacket, and in the same year, Morpheus from the Matrix is also cloaked in a long, black leather coat.

And let’s not forget Wolverine, in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

We also see one Star Wars leather jacket in The Force Awakens (2015).

The jacket Finn wears actually belongs to Poe, and the transition of ownership adds another level of meaning to the simple garment.

Finn finds the jacket in the wreckage of the tie-fighter he and Poe steal to escape The First Order.

Finn, presuming Poe is dead, takes the jacket and heads off on his own quest for survival where he later meets Rey and BB-8. The rest, as they say, is history.

But the moment where Poe is revealed to be alive, his and Finn’s first encounter gave the audience a glimpse into the solidarity between the two characters (and, indeed, to an entire ship within the Star Wars fandom) when Finn attempts to return the jacket.

Poe says to Finn: “Keep it, it looks good on you.”

That single moment where Poe relinquishes his jacket to Finn shows solidarity, love, and faith – all pillars of the Star Wars ethos, embodied in the relationships between these characters.

And so a jacket is not merely a jacket, but instead an embodiment of who these characters are and how they fit into their own unique universes.