There’s nothing Levi’s doesn’t already know about denim jackets — the 173-year-old brand basically invented them! But two recent collaborations, both pulled off by two separate Japanese arbiters of good taste, show just how good a classic Levi's denim jacket looks when it goes beyond denim.

And it can be a lesson for all denim trucker jackets around the world.

Multi-brand retailer EDIFICE took the Levi’s Type II, the brand’s second-ever stab at a denim jacket from 1953, to places it's never been before through washed black denim and leather garnishes. 

Providing a shiny focal point to this otherwise classic outerwear is a lambskin leather collar complemented by yet more leather lining on the sleeve that only reveals itself once you flip the cuff over. 

These are the small touches that make this not just a denim jacket, nor a leather jacket. It’s something in between that I recently coined as a leather jacket lite. Meaning, an approachable jacket made more beautiful with a hint of nice soft leather-y contrast.

However, this comes off the back of a leathermaxxed Levi’s jacket.

The Type II’s predecessor (yes, the Type I) recently became what looks like a leather jacket in the hands of slow-fashion-led boutique BIOTOP. 

The jacket was actually covered in a layer of shiny black polyurethane that appears so much like leather that nobody would notice until the denim inner is revealed. And it made the whole thing look so clean that it proves the secret ingredient to a great denim jacket is leather. Or, something that looks exactly like leather. Or, just anything that goes beyond the classic denims we all know and love. 

There’s something inherently fascinating about seeing such a time-honored outerwear style contorted into something new. It’s like when The North Face or Stone Island makes denim jackets into technical weatherproof shells or when sacai Frankensteins together ingenious denim bomber jackets or when Bless made a denim cardigan. 

These Levi's collaborations hit in a similar, but admittedly less extreme way. Denim jackets aren’t meant to have leather and yet... leather denim jackets look so good.

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