Maverick James, a new company selling women's fine leather apparel, has just launched its first ecommerce site. The company’s aim is to change people’s perceptions about leather apparel.

Company president, Dennis Ledbetter, said: "When I told people that we intended to make and sell leather apparel, they immediately assumed that we were going to sell leather motorcycle clothing. When I showed them our line of upscale women's leather dresses, skirts, pants and coats, they were simply amazed because it was nothing like what they had expected."

The collection is made from full-grain nappa leather, which, according to Mr Ledbetter is of a higher quality than that used by many other leather garment manufacturers. Its garments come in a wide range of colours.

"Black and other dark leather colours allow manufacturers to use low-quality leather because the dark colour allows manufacturers to hide many of the defects in the lower quality leather they are using," said Mr Ledbetter. "So it was a good thing for manufacturers that the biker wear market was primarily centred around black leather."

According to Mr Ledbetter, this also spilled over to other parts of the leather apparel market. "For skirts and pants, they started using the same inferior leather and to make them even cheaper, many manufacturers eliminated linings. That's how you get leather skirts for $30 and leather pants for $50," he said. "The lower quality, cheap end of the market appears to be sufficiently covered, so we decided to go back to the roots of the leather garment industry and make upscale fashionable garments that will flatter women's figures. We believe that women will really be excited about our styles and colours," said Mr Ledbetter.

Share this story: