A Go to to Lewis Leathers (2013)

On a current (Spring of 2013) whirlwind journey to London and Paris, I had an opportunity to meet up with Derek Harris, proprietor of Lewis Leathers, the oldest motorcycle-clothing enterprise on the planet – based in 1892. Derek is a breath of recent air as proprietor of an internationally acknowledged ‘model’, and the very reverse of at present’s capitalist-opportunist-vultures who snag a lifeless identify, creating Franken-brands stitched up from skins of the ‘cool’ lifeless, within the feverish pursuit of cash cash cash. (Ask me how I actually really feel).

Harris is the reluctant proprietor of this iconic identify in moto-gear, and by no means supposed to personal the corporate, but had a curious relationship with Lewis Leathers earlier than he ever labored there. He spent years researching – independently – misplaced patterns and designs from LL and its generally complicated net of associated sub-brands (D.Lewis, Aviakit, Highwayman, S.Lewis), working as a mediator between super-hip Japanese clothes importers and varied British manufacturers, to fulfill a peculiarly Japanese starvation for English heritage clothes, and rocker gear particularly, in the course of the late Eighties and 90s. [I played a small part in this story as well in 1989, modeling Rocker gear and bikes – my Velocette Thruxton – for ‘Nicole Club’, a Japanese company producing super-retro biker fashion gear]. Lewis Leathers had no ‘heritage’ division on the time, and was busy producing ‘non-iconic’ designs from the Nineteen Seventies/80s on the time Harris approached them to start remaking their older kinds. As LL had no patterns for his or her older jackets, Harris carried out his personal analysis, buying previous Lewis Leathers and D.Lewis jackets and pants, and created new patterns for clothes created from the Thirties – 60s… all this whereas a non-employee, beginning in 1991.

Richard Lyon had owned Lewis Leathers since 1986, and was able to promote the enterprise in 2003, having bigger pursuits elsewhere which required consideration, and knowledgeable Derek not solely that he was completed with LL, however had already sourced a purchaser. Harris feared the lack of the corporate and the historical past he’d labored exhausting to protect, and requested with sinking coronary heart who the brand new proprietor could be…solely to listen to, “You.” With the assistance of mates and loans, Harris did certainly purchase the corporate, and continues to develop and analysis the model and its lengthy historical past, whereas producing each an distinctive vary of conventional using gear, in addition to cool modern designs, together with a spread of sneakers.

The store is one thing of a museum of artifacts from Harris’ years of amassing classic Lewis Leathers using and racing gear, and associated paraphernalia. Harris has a rack of classic leather-based, and the partitions of the store are festooned with previous Rocker jackets. A number of of those unique jackets will likely be displayed on the Ton Up! exhibition I’m curating with photographer Michael Lichter at his gallery in Sturgis. The total story of Lewis Leathers and their relation to café racer tradition will likely be explored in my e-book known as Cafe Racers: Velocity, Type, and Ton-Up Tradition (Motorbooks 2014), primarily based on the exhibition. If you happen to’re in Sturgis this summer time for Bike Week (2013), positively cease in to see the present, and in the event you’re in London, you have to cease by Lewis Leathers, which is simply off Oxford Road, and stick round for a cup of tea. Simply don’t ask to purchase the classic jackets!  [The subject was explored even more deeply in my 2020 book Ton Up! A Century of Cafe Racer Style and Speed – you can buy a signed copy from our Shop here.]