FROM WAISTCOAT TO CUT: THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOTORCYCLE VEST

Who was the first person to lob the arms off a coat and call it a vest? The obvious answer is King Charles II of England on October 7, 1666. (No, really!)

What does Charles’s vest and a motorcycle vest have in common? Not much, actually. His vest — a waistcoat — went under coats. Even after hundreds of years, it remains a popular piece of clothing.

Three-piece suits, anyone?

Motorcycle vests, on the other hand, are worn as the top layer. While we call them vests today, just a hundred years ago some sleeveless outerwear went by another name: a jerkin.

Sleeveless and close fitting, jerkins were worn over full-sleeved garments for added protection. During World War II, British and Commonwealth soldiers — particularly engineers, truck drivers, and motorcycle dispatch riders — wore leather jerkins because they allowed full mobility in the arms while offering protection from the elements.

Luckily for us, the name “jerkin” didn’t stick in American motorcycle culture. But the idea of protection without restriction did.

World War II also inspired something that would prove even more influential to the modern motorcycle vest. American aviators and crews flying missions over Europe and the Pacific personalized their jackets, painting the backs with squadron emblems, mission counts, nose art, and pinups.

The back of a uniform jacket was transformed into a living canvas.

And when thousands of servicemen returned home after the war, they brought that instinct for personalization with them. Motorcycles became an outlet for camaraderie and identity. And the sleeveless jacket became the perfect place to display it.

These decorated vests, known today as “cuts,” carried club colors across the back and helped define post-war American motorcycle culture.

The most common early motorcycle vests weren’t leather, however. They were denim. Denim gained widespread popularity after the war, becoming the go-to clothing for recreation activities. The crooner Bing Crosby had a hand in inventing the Canadian tuxedo after a hunting trip new Vancouver. James Dean sported blue jeans both on film sets and in his everyday life.

Motorcyclists wore blue jeans, too, but also adopted the denim jacket. Denim jackets had the benefit of being more lightweight than leather and could be worn comfortably during the summer months when a leather jacket might be too hot. It was easy for riders to turn jackets into vests, sew their colors to the back, customize them with pins and patches, and have something they could wear by itself in the summer or over leather jackets in the cooler months.

When Harley-Davidson offered its first vest for sale in 1960, however, it bore little resemblance to those early denim vests. Sold specifically to motorcycle racers, it was a black and white rayon (a lightweight, semi-synthetic fabric) with “Harley-Davidson” printed on the front. The company sold this vest — or one much like it — for nearly 16 years.

The first Harley-Davidson vest we could really call a motorcycle vest appeared in 1973. According to the catalog, for $31, “You will enjoy wearing one of these black, genuine leather vests. They give you that free and easy feeling — cool man and comfortable. Two pockets, zip front, nylon lined.”

Just like their denim predecessors, people who bought these new Harley-Davidson leather vests quickly made them their own.

Russ Townsend loved Harley-Davidson’s touring motorcycles. When he suffered an injury that kept him from riding, he spent countless hours attaching a couple thousand rhinestones to his 1973 FLH ElectraGlide. Townsend’s vest — one of the original Harley vests that debuted in 1973 — is decorated with pins and patches celebrating his passion for touring. Think: patches and pins from clubs dedicated to touring motorcycles, rallies for touring motorcycles, and rides just for touring bikes.

Russ’ vest is now part of the Harley-Davidson Archives collection, an honor it shares with other incredible and historic vests. When riders decorate them with patches and pins, it can tell us much about them: from places they went, of course, but also a little insight into their personalities.

Whether its history begins in the royal court of Charles II or battlefields of World War II, or somewhere else entirely, the motorcycle vest is iconic. It’s functional, it’s stylish, and it’s personal. You can’t get better than that.

Long live the vest.