Leather Jacket of My Dreams — Alexandra Rovetto

By a happy accident I ripped a big ole hole in my Italian leather jacket. I bought my jacket from a small little shop deep in the leather market called Massimo’s Leather. I absolutely adore this jacket and I was heartbroken when I got caught on a door handle one day and I ripped a huge hole up the left side of my jacket. From 2018-2020 my favorite jacket sat in my closest collecting dust because I was just too lazy to fix it. During quarantine I got the bright idea to try to patch it. I knew I would never really be satisfied with a huge leather rip stitch in my jacket so I hopped on Etsy and started browsing patches.

What I loved about adding patches to my leather jacket was the individuality. I had the power to put any patch my heart desired on my jacket. This was a cool and awesome way to express myself through my fashion sense. I bought patches from all over the world. Some from the UK, others from Australia and a bunch from Croatia, the U.S. and Sweden. I was happy to support small businesses during the pandemic. It felt so good to shop small and I left every shop a killer review on Etsy when the jacket was done. I started buying patches in April of 2020 and all of them finally arrived by August 2020. I bought patches that were very personal to me. From sports and tv shows to badass quotes and feminism, this jacket is 100% unique.

Some of my favorite patches are “the future is female” patch and the death eaters mark from Harry Potter. I truly love the “Ew David” patch and the “1995” candy heart patch on my lapel. I picked over 30+ patches to get hand stitched on this leather jacket. Without A Trace made my vision a reality. It took a few months but I had my jacket just in time for fall here in Chicago. I spent about a thousand euro on the jacket itself, $250 on patches and shipping and $500 on getting the patches attached. This was a very expensive but extremely cool project for quarantine. I wouldn’t trade this jacket for anything in the entire world. It’s now my favorite piece in my wardrobe and I swear I will never take it off.