"I Asked Myself, What Would Make The Worlds Best Leather Jacket?": The History Of Kay Michaels With BODA SKINS CEO, Nathan Alexander
Our Kay Michaels has been our most treasured item for nearly a decade now. The thing is, our Kay Michaels is more than just a jacket to us - it’s a lifestyle, it’s a feeling. Being able to transform yourself, and your frame of mind through an item of clothing is something that we all come across very rarely - sometimes, once in a lifetime.
This jacket has changed the way we see luxury fashion and it’s changing the way the industry sees leather. There’s a reason it’s become the most photographed leather jacket on the planet over the last decade.
But for some, and more specifically, BODA SKINS founder and CEO, Nathan Alexander, his creation of his Kay Michaels means much more to him than being the most wanted leather jacket in the world…
"The KM is coming up to its 10 year anniversary, it's been a true labour of love and is still one of our best sellers today."
So, the iconic KM is named after my closest friend," Nathan tells us. "He was a pure rockstar at heart, with mad long hair. He drove a blacked-out Harley Davidson and left Manchester to moved to Tennessee. I remember asking, "Why Nashville?", he then looked at me and replied, "to become a rockstar."
"I named the jacket after my good friend, who moved to Nashville, sadly passed away due to a brain tumour. He is the original Kay Michaels, so it was an obvious choice to use his name.”
Over time, Kay Michaels, the style, has continued to evolve. New colourways have regularly entered the fold, along with exciting new patterned linings, continuing to steal the show every season.
But, this legendary leather hasn't always been an item that has naturally been perfect.
"The creative process of Kay Michaels has now set the standard of how everything at BODA is produced," Nathan says.
"It hasn't always been easy, though," he continued. "When it came to creating Kay Michaels, I simply asked myself the question: What would make the world's best leather jacket?
So I continued to research ideas on what I believed was the best leather jacket, and to be honest, at the time, it was a very selfish design that was tailored-made, specifically for me." After months of sketches, designs + research, the Kay Michaels began to take shape.
Leather has always been an important material in luxury fashion, with leaders in the industry sending it down various catwalks on the world stage.
"I had folders of magazine cutouts, Pinterest boards, sketches and notes, crammed with inspiration," Nathan said.
"Any time I saw something on a jacket, or sometimes not even on a jacket, I would take a photo to make a note of it.
"When I eventually came to design the jacket, I went back through my research and extracted the bits I loved most to create the ultimate jacket.
Working side-by-side with the workshop I continuously asked myself the same repetitive question “how can we make it better," I still ask myself the same question every single day."
But like any great creation, BODA SKINS' Kay Michaels was not born overnight.
Nathan continued: "I definitely did not achieve success with the Kay Michaels design the first time around.
The first-ever KM was not a jacket I was proud of, but we kept developing it, and over time, a star was born."
Now, the Kay Michaels is a star-studded jacket that has been seen on the backs of the biggest stars in the world, with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Johnny Depp and Khloe Kardashian being seen with our world-famous leathers.
The BODA SKINS team has believed in this jacket from day one, it has been transformed into a timeless piece that has allowed BODA fans to draw attachments to it, for a lifetime.
Nathan still continues to evolve his treasured creation and admits that the hard work is still not over: "I’m still making tweaks, adjustments and improvements to this day and will continue to do so."
