Can you even call yourself a menswear brand if you don’t have your own leather jacket?
British label &SONS just came out with theirs, and it’s a doozy. They teamed up with The McQueen Estate to build a version of the A-2 flight jacket, aka the jacket Steve McQueen wears in The Great Escape.
Long before it was a movie costume, though, the A-2 was standard military issue — introduced in 1931 for U.S. Army Air Corps aircrew, decades before McQueen ever put one on as Hilts, “The Cooler King.”
&SONS’ version is cut from genuine cow leather with a vintage wash, so it arrives already broken in, creased, and burnished instead of stiff off the rack.
The standing collar fastens with an antique brass hook-and-bar closure, a leather placket covers the center-front zip, and it’s rounded out with military epaulettes, oversized patch pockets, and a ball-puller chest zip — all lifted from the original A-2 spec.
A brand built on hand-me-down logic
Photographer Phil James started the label back in 2016 after getting fed up piecing together the vintage-workwear look he wanted from a dozen different sites.
The jacket isn’t a standalone either — it anchors a full McQueen collection at &SONS, including chinos, a stockman shirt, a graphic tee, and a pair of suede boots, all built around the same sensibility.
It’s a pretty easy win, since Steve McQueen is one of those rare style icons whose whole look still feels like a guiding star as opposed to being stuck in the era. The guy made worn-in leather, plain tees, and sunglasses look more deliberate than anything on a runway, and brands have been chasing that cool ever since.
One note on sizing: an A-2 like this wears looser and boxier through the body than the moto jackets most guys default to when they picture “leather jacket.” Flight jackets were cut to fit under a parachute harness, so they run close through the shoulders but with more room to layer underneath, versus a moto’s tighter, more athletic silhouette built for hunching over handlebars.
If you’re used to moto sizing, don’t be surprised if the A-2 feels roomier than expected — that’s the jacket doing what it was designed to do.
Where to buy it
The McQueen A2 Leather Jacket is new to the U.S. market, priced at $1,460 at andsons.us. Sizes have already been selling out on the UK site, so I wouldn’t wait around if brown leather with a movie pedigree is your thing.
