Fashion Forward Fridays: Wearing Leather

So my most recent obsession is wearing leather in the most classy ways possible. For today's Fashion Forward Fridays, I wanted to demonstrate what that means to me and hopefully you'll like these looks too. I'm sure you will realize the common theme of mixing hard and soft elements into outfits, which is by far my favorite thing to do because I love mixing the super feminine with tough masculine pieces. My personal style of how to wear leather, clearly has that theme throughout.

You may not be the kind of person who dresses up to go everywhere, but you should know that I am. A decade worth of watching What Not To Wear during your formative fashion years will do that to you. So this look may be a bit too much for you to consider as an "everyday" kind of look. Personally, this outfit is perfect for running errands, going out to lunch, to a meeting. Whatever you've got going on, this outfit can handle it. The only thing to keep in mind is that leather pants tend to stretch out and wear as you move around in them, so 1) they get more comfortable throughout the day, and 2) you really shouldn't actually wear them everyday if you want them to remain as them should.

Usually I'm not a fan of matching pieces of your outfit, but I just thought the reds popped too perfectly not to keep them together. This outfit is so sweet to me. I can image a lovely date night at a nice restaurant and then walking arm in arm to a theater and to a late night dessert outing. Sigh. So cute. This look is the sappy stuff movies are made of. I'm such a sucker for a classic bomber jacket paired with lace, so this pairing is making me so proud of myself and my Polyvore skills....now all I need is to find a dress like this for myself so I can really make this outfit and then force MJ into taking a romantic stroll with me.

Again, I'm not a fan of matching pieces of your outfit, but if you are bold enough to wear a leather peplum skirt to the office, you should probably tone down your bag and shoes. (And this is coming from the girl who lets her heels do the talking for about 90% of her outfits.) This outfit screams power player to me so I hope you ladies work in an environment where a leather skirt and heels with some spikes on them would be acceptable, because there is no way that you'll walk out of the office without a raise if you ask for one while wearing a look like this.

What are your favorite kinds of pieces to wear right now? Which is your favorite leather style?