Leather, quite simply, is more wearable than ever. With the current crop of designers taking the lusty creak of the world's most manly textile and recreating its classic styles in sleeker weights and more mobile constructions it is now smoother to the touch and lighter in feel than ever before. This not only means that classic jackets are easier to wear but it also means that silhouettes once created with cotton and nylon are now rendered in leather.

And we love it. So much so that we endorse it heartily from winter through to summer, its celluloid appeal remaining the most heroic of all menswear. Check out our shoot, a cheeky homage to the looks which define leather's enduring big screen charm. From James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt of the Mission Impossible franchise – when the costume department want to say “hero”, it does so with leather. Each is an icon of testosterone.

And while those looks may have felt a little hackneyed in the stiff unyielding leather of old, today's designer-weight gear moves far more easily and looks more contemporary, thanks to subtle

tweaks and sharpened silhouettes which update leather's legacy of thousands of years of use as a form of body armour.

It was, however, the 20th century that witnessed the protective outerwear's transition into modern icon. Worn by airmen in both World Wars, leather jackets took on now-classic styles like the A2 and its furry collared counterpart the G1.

In the post war years it became rooted in subculture, the latter part of the century's most stylish arena of combat. And from bikers to mods in their Café Racer styles, to punks and even indie kids – courtesy of New York bands like The Ramones and the Strokes, each inspiring the union of jackets with spray-on denims and Converse – the leather jacket has remained the acme of cool.

The leather jacket is a moving monument to heroes, villains and rogues, encapsulating all that we – as chaps, blokes, lads… men, in fact – cherish about our masculinity. Don't expect a jacket to change your life. But it will make you feel good. And perhaps just a little bit more likely to drive off on a motorbike or explore that hidden tomb…