NOW OPEN: Schott Marks 100 Years With A New Store & An Exhibition

Do you have a motorcycle jacket yet?
What are you waiting for?
If you haven't noticed, the fashion icon to be rediscovered and thrust into the limelight this season is the zipped Perfecto style biker jacket. While some might credit Hedi Slimane for putting it at the center of his grungy Fall collection for Saint Laurent, the folks at Schott would probably say, "Hedi who?". They would point to their company's 100th anniversary and remind you that they have owned the trademark "Perfecto" since their company invented the style in 1928. As a genuine heritage brand, Schott hasn't needed the kind of carefully engineered revival and repositioning that other such companies have enjoyed in recent years. It been making versions of its signature items continuously in its New York area factories as there has been no shortage of bikers, or aspiring bikers, looking for the jacket that Marlon Brando made famous in the 1950s. To mark the 100 year milestone as well as the opening of its first boutique, Schott staged an all-too-brief exhibition (pictured below) over the weekend a couple of blocks away on Mulberry Street tracing its history making apparel for the Military and Police along with motorcycle enthusiasts and featuring an abundance of archival pieces including a couple of prized pieces from the 1980s decorated by Keith Haring.

Naturally, the signature Perfecto is in the window of Schott's new Elizabeth Street boutique (over a pair of Tellason jeans which are sold there to complete the look). Walk in and be reminded that the brand has thrived on more than biker jackets over the years, producing Navy peacoats, varsity jackets, fur collared bombers, brass-buttoned police coats, baseball jackets and pretty much every classic style of outerwear to have emerged during the 20th Century. Unlike its English counterpart, Belstaff, the company (still owned by the same family) has pointedly not remade itself as a luxury lifestyle brand, instead emphasizing the utilitarian aspects of its rich archives in solid quality and updated but not necessarily extravagant materials. You won't find an alligator skin biker jacket in the store, but that doesn't mean that its offerings haven't been burnished just a bit. If you aren't up for the extended break-in period required by the original steerhide Perfecto, you can find it in a softer calf version. There are a few obligatory forays into fashion as well (herringbone tweed Perfecto?), and jeans and t-shirts round out the stock, but by and large, Schott sticks with the basics and avoids overly contrived variations on its classics. Prices top out in the $1,000 range for more expensive leather pieces, which is something of an investment, but not nearly as much as Slimane's over $5,000 version, and it comes with an extra degree of authenticity that French a couture house simply cannot provide.

Schott 236 Elizabeth Street between Houston & Price Streets, NoLita