This Portobello home has been injected with light, flow, and zingy colour
This Portobello home has been injected with light, flow, and zingy colour

Megan Burns

WIN a €300 voucher for a luxurious stay at the Dylan Hotel
WIN a €300 voucher for a luxurious stay at the Dylan Hotel

Edaein OConnell

3 high-protein sweet treats to enjoy this Christmas
3 high-protein sweet treats to enjoy this Christmas

Edaein OConnell

7 of the best gastropubs around Ireland
7 of the best gastropubs around Ireland

IMAGE

WIN a luxurious 2-night stay at Fota Island Resort
WIN a luxurious 2-night stay at Fota Island Resort

Edaein OConnell

Cocktail Club: For something out of the ordinary, try this green tea infused tipple
Cocktail Club: For something out of the ordinary, try this green tea infused tipple

Megan Burns

Real Weddings: Sarah and Karl’s festive celebrations in Co Wicklow
Real Weddings: Sarah and Karl’s festive celebrations in Co Wicklow

Edaein OConnell

Lisa O’Connor talks art, activism, and the magic that happens when the two collide
Lisa O’Connor talks art, activism, and the magic that happens when the two collide

Sarah Gill

Friends as family: How the company we keep can change our lives
Friends as family: How the company we keep can change our lives

Roe McDermott

Poppy O’Toole (aka Poppy Cooks) shares her life in food
Poppy O’Toole (aka Poppy Cooks) shares her life in food

Sarah Gill

Image / Style / Fashion / Shopping

The perfect leather blazer is your autumn wardrobe essential


By Holly O'Neill
01st Sep 2020
The perfect leather blazer is your autumn wardrobe essential

Meet your most essential new season wardrobe piece, the leather blazer


How could it possibly be September today? How has this happened? It was March five minutes ago, but also three decades ago. Don’t blink or it’ll be Christmas.

September is the real new year. In January you’re still trying to wear your sequinned skirt and finishing off the brie. Then all of a sudden, it’s September and you still haven’t become a vegan or quit your vape or curated your wardrobe down to ten key everyday essential pieces like a French woman. You know, the things you were supposed to do in January.

Typically we’d have had a summer that might have included a flight and a new bikini and an Instagram filled with Aperol and we’d be ready to sit up a bit straighter now after months of summer lounging. But with All This, we’re still here, working from our kitchen tables like we were in March, like that montage in New Moon where Bella sits looking out the window for three months.

So instead of having an existential crisis over the passing of time, hold tight to the new season feel of September. It’s a new term, a new outlook, a fresh start and a time for the big questions. Do I like my job? Should I get a fringe? Who will we go to for Christmas? God, will we even be able to go to anyone’s for Christmas? It’s not quite time to think about what your winter coat will be this year (after all, September in Ireland tends to bring more sunshine than June does), but it’s definitely time to think about who you are this season, and as a result, what jacket you’ll wear.

You’re not quite ready for festive folderol and trends feel de trop. Fortunately, with All This, the shops are filled with practical essentials you’ll always want to buy and wear, like great knits and excellent jeans. You want your new jacket to be waterproof, of course, but you don’t want some pragmatic cagoule either. It’s a new term, it’s back to school, so the reasonable jacket that you need is the one you probably already own; a really fantastic blazer. If you don’t already own one, the perfect one now exists, and it’s leather.

leather blazer

That might sound a bit 80’s but it really isn’t. The ones available now have been taking up all my brain space and daydreams — well they were, before I saw Machine Gun Kelly’s flaming pink Berluti suit at the VMAs. These leather blazers are perfectly proportioned; oversized enough that you’ll fit a jumper underneath them in December but not too oversized that if you ever get to wear them with a dress that it’ll look like you’ve borrowed your boyfriend’s suit jacket.

leather blazer

They look great thrown on with everything you already own; with shirts and v-neck t-shirts, with day dresses and ballgowns, with pencil skirts, with gold chains, with wooly knits and most importantly and practically, with jeans. They’re wipe-clean, they’re waterproof, you’ll get mileage out of them. They come in structured and in slouchy. Best of all, they’re affordable too. Sure, you can splash out on the hourglass-shaped Altuzarra one, but the high street versions are just as good.

leather blazer

Bring on September then. We’ll get through it a lot easier with any of these leather blazers over our shoulders.

Shop leather blazers below.

Mango Leather Blazer, €239.99

& Other Stories Fitted Straight Leather Blazer, €299

Zara Faux Leather Oversized Blazer €49.95

Monki Faux Leather Blazer, €70

Arket Oversized Leather Blazer in 2020 | Leather blazer, Leather jacket, Fashion

Arket Oversized Leather Blazer, €350

Altuzarra Black Egan Leather Blazer, €1,665

Photography by Jason Lloyd Evans.

Read more: 5 autumn boots on our list for the upcoming season

Read more: Second Hand September starts tomorrow: here are some of my favourite Instagram sellers to kick off with

Read more: Meet the O’ Riordans, two of Ireland’s most exciting fashion design talents