The Story Behind Anthony Bourdain’s Iconic Leather Jacket—and Why It’s Finally Returning Now

Kenneth Cole is sitting in his New York office. The curtains behind him are drawn and warm light is seeping through the sides. The legendary designer is wearing a slightly beat-up denim shirt with the top two buttons undone, and the moment we connect on Zoom, a smile appears on his face. “Hi Adam,” he says. “That’s quite a story you wrote.”
About a week ago, British GQ published a piece about the surprisingly complicated lore behind Anthony Bourdain’s battered leather jacket.

You know the one. He wore it in the very first episode of No Reservations, took it around the world, wore the shit out of it, and, two decades later, it became part of one of the internet’s favorite memes. The jacket was from Kenneth Cole, but exactly which Kenneth Cole jacket was a lot harder to figure out. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with questions. Hours after the story went live, Cole’s team came across it and passed it on to the man himself, who eventually got in touch with GQ.

Now, a few days later, I find myself chatting with the man himself. “It’s a long time ago, obviously,” he says of the jacket. “But in some ways it doesn’t seem so long ago.”
So, first things first: what actually was it? Cole remembers the jacket and remembers designing it. He confirms it was from fall-winter 2003, when leather outerwear was “a big part of our business.” More than 20 years later, the exact model name remains a little harder to pin down, but at least one of the biggest questions from our original investigation can finally be put to bed.

What Cole does remember is just how seriously

What Cole does remember is just how seriously Kenneth Cole took leather jackets back then. “I’ve always believed that a leather coat is like a man’s ultimate accessory,” he says. Unlike trousers or a shirt, it can be thrown over basically anything. And despite the debate that followed our original story over whether Bourdain’s piece was technically a blazer or something else entirely, Cole isn’t particularly bothered about putting it in a box.

“I would just call it a leather jacket,” he says, before conceding that “classic car coat” works too. The whole point was versatility: weekday, weekend, day, night, sweater underneath, tailoring underneath, whatever. Cole also has a theory about why the jacket became so inseparable from Bourdain in the first place. “He was a uniform dresser,” he says. “He didn’t let the clothes define him—he defined the clothes.” Bourdain wore variations of essentially the same thing again and again and again, and Cole reckons that made him “the guy every designer would want to dress.”
And the two had actually crossed paths.

Cole was heavily involved with amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) and homelessness initiatives during those years, and remembers Bourdain appearing at many of the events. “We came across each other and intersected on occasion,” he says. “I always had a very high regard for him.” Asked whether Bourdain might have deliberately chosen his label because of their shared politics, he’s careful not to rewrite history.

I don’t know the answer to that question,

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” he says. “I like to think that there was a kinship. We were both kind of frustrated activists in our own right.”
There’s another correction to make from our original investigation. We were told Bourdain’s jacket came pre-distressed. Cole says that while Kenneth Cole did make pre-worn pieces over the years, “that wasn’t necessarily the case with this one.” In other words, a lot of that battered finish may have simply been Bourdain wearing the absolute hell out of it.

And Cole loves what became of it. “The jacket wore better than the designer did for that period of time,” he jokes. “I love when somebody just makes it their own and it looks lived in, and in fact it was, which makes it that much cooler.”
Twenty-something years later, guys are still digging around for the thing. Bourdain’s own eventually sold for thousands at auction and Cole admits the renewed attention is “very flattering.” But he’s not totally convinced it’s all about his design.

“I don’t know, at the end, if they’re really talking about the jacket or the person wearing it, or maybe it was a combination of the two.” Either way, the timing is pretty good: Cole also reveals that Kenneth Cole is “looking to relaunch in Europe shortly.”
After more than four decades in the business, his thinking about what guys actually want has changed, too. “I used to think my job as a designer was to tell people what they should wear,” he says.

I’ve come to learn that people know what

“I’ve come to learn that people know what they want, but my job is to give it to them, but not how they expect it.” Guys, he points out, “do not empty their closets at the end of the season and start over again.” And when you’re running a brand that’s been around since 1982, staying relevant is a daily job. “I’ve earned after 40 years the right to be considered, but every day we have to earn the right to be chosen.”
Which brings us back to leather.

Kenneth Cole hasn’t been nearly as leather-heavy in recent years. Cole says men stopped wearing leather jackets as much, so the brand moved towards technical fabrics and wool and nylon—but that’s about to change. “You’ll see them this autumn,” he says. “You’re going to start seeing some more leather again.” Then, laughing, he adds that the timing works rather nicely after our original article: “We can now blame this whole thing on your story.”
So I ask the obvious question.

If Kenneth Cole is getting back into leather, could that jacket come back too? “I think we will,” Cole says. “We will bring back Bourdain’s jacket… or a version of it, yes, we’re working on it. We’re having that conversation right now.” Then comes the bit that makes this whole extremely specific menswear investigation feel particularly worth it: “It’s thanks to you.”
When I try to squeeze anything else out of him, he laughs.

“It’s top secret.” But then he confirms it again: “Yes, we’’e working on bringing back Bourdain’s jacket.”
So there you have it, lads. We started by trying to figure out one battered leather jacket from 20-odd years ago and somehow ended up helping to bring the thing back. Not bad for a week’s work. This story originally appeared on British GQ.

Source: www.gq.com