Buffy Summers, and various other strong hand-to-hand fighters in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, wearing lots of leather jackets and leather pants not only because it looks cool and sexy, but also because out of all of the commonly available fabrics nowadays, and especially in the late 90’s and early ‘00’s, leather’s not a bad choice in regards to body armour. Especially if you’re not doing Spider-Man style quick-changes, and wearing it as clothes even when not fighting or patrolling, particularly if you hang out and often end up fighting in or around a nightclub, like The Bronze. Also, it looks cool.
Watch me write out a whole dissertation on that tbh.
Notice how most, if not all, of the characters that aren’t expected to be great at hand-to-hand combat rarely wear much leather, especially long leather coats that cover much of their bodies.
Willow Rosenberg, who absolutely can be a threat when she wants to be, rarely wears much leather, and she’s an extremely powerful witch, but not very skilled in physical combat. In fact, 1 of the only times that Willow wears leather is in Season 3, episode 1, when she’s patrolling without Buffy, and knows that she’s likely to have to physically fight at some point. Otherwise, Willow’s clothes are often much more likely to have softer materials, often fuzzy ones. 1 of the only other times that Willow wears a lot of leather would be Vampire Willow, who we never see utilise magic, and who seems a lot more comfortable with physical violence than non-vampire Willow. Even when Willow is at her most powerful with magic, she rarely wears leather.
Another interesting thing that I’d like to note, is that denim also would be pretty decent body armour under those sorts of conditions, and would likely be a lot cheaper than leather, and you know who wears a lot of denim and leather? Faith Lehane, who is by no means rich, and who also has been known to steal when she notices something useful but expensive that she wants.
I think that 1 of the best examples of that theory is Spike. Spike’s clothes arguably change the least and have the least amount of variety in the Buffyverse, however at almost all of Spike’s most vulnerable moments, and almost never at any other time, do we see Spike without a leather jacket on, specifically his leather coat, however there are a few times when he wears other leather jackets. When Spike sings to Buffy in Once More With Feeling, when he’s stuck and tied up with The Scoobies in Season 4, pretty much the entirety of Season 7. When Spike’s very specifically not being a fighter, often when he’s literally unable to be, often those are the rare times when we get to see Spike without a leather jacket on.
While other strong hand-to-hand fighters do wear other things besides only leather, and aren’t as strict about that as Spike seems to be, it’s definitely evident that those characters, like Buffy and Angel, are consistently more likely to wear it, and wear more of it, and in fact, it’s often associated with them, unlike others, like Xander, Tara, Oz, Anya, Dawn, etc. .
In fact, there are multiple times when Buffy is about to go into a big fight knowingly, and specifically wears leather. For example, when Buffy goes to fight Faith in Graduation Day Part 1, and she then takes off her leather jacket when she decides to let Angel feed off of her, and then wears more leather again to fight The Mayor in Graduation Day Part 2.
Also, to add on a little cherry on top of that, already, The Trio in Season 6 are rarely, if ever, shown to wear leather, and they’re explicitly and obviously not physical fighters, and Riley Finn, and the rest of The Initiative rarely, if ever, wear leather, and are also explicitly and clearly not as good fighters as Buffy, other Slayers, and other magical, mystical, and supernatural beings.
Part of being a good fighter is staying alive, and minimalising the likelihood of injury. As far as cool and fashionable body armour goes, leather, and to some extent, denim, aren’t bad options.
