David Samuel Menkes Custom Leatherwear/Motorcycle Pants/Leather/38"(W) x 32(L).

David Samuel Menkes is one of NYC's very best custom leather tailors.

These are vintage David Samuel Menkes Motorcycle Pants--38"(W) x 32"(L). These trousers can be tailored.

Best leather, best seams, design and execution.

The leather pants have been used. Can be cleaned (see photographs).

About:

David Samuel Menkes established Custom Leatherwear in 1980.

After graduating from Carnegie-Mellon University/ BA Costume and Scenic Design, I arrived in NY with theater dreams, but soon found the Leather Scene more interesting.

Applying a certain theatrical flair allowed for a wide range of design within a strict code of dress. Developing a specialty in leather craft also brought Fashion and Theater projects, as well as crafting for Artists, Interior Designers, Performers, and private customers, with projects ranging from Dog Muzzles to covering a giant head of Stalin with a hood!

Mr. Menkes is no longer producing product (see below)
Measurements:

Waist: 38"
Inseam: 32"
Full Length: 44"
Padded

Note:

After a brief struggle with cancer, prolific leather artist David Samuel Menkes, known as the "go-to-leather guy" in the fields of fashion, fetish, film & theater, tragically passed away on Tuesday, January 14th 2025.

With an office & studio at 144 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan's Flatiron District, Menkes quietly crafted for over 40 years some of the most iconic leather pieces for big celebs, such as Lady Gaga's infamous assault rifle bra, while also outfitting much of NYC's LGBTQ+ leather & fetish community.

A New Jersey native, Menkes studied costume design at Carnegie Mellon & began his career by designing looks for off Broadway shows & working for a florist, where he built a giant stuffed bunny for Bianca Jagger’s birthday party at Studio 54. He then transitioned more into fashion, working for brands like Christian Dior, but also started hanging out & being influenced by NYC's underground bar scene, which turned him onto a lifetime of leather.

Menkes told Interview Magazine: "At the time, I was going out at night to the backroom bars & I got into a group called ‘Gay Male S&M Activists,’ which was a kind of support group for men who were into leather & fetish...I could always make clothes. I started sewing around age 15. So I thought, This is the scene of people I’m hanging out with. Why not see if I can make clothes for them too?”

In 1980, he founded David Samuel Menkes Custom Leatherwear, initially running his atelier out of his apartment. News quickly spread about his impeccable skills making custom harnesses, jockstraps & chaps & he was soon creating pieces for Broadway shows, high fashion runways, magazine shoots & more. His work could soon be found all over: From Jennifer Lopez wearing a custom biker cap of his on a cover of Elle to Ellen von Unwerth donning a custom crafted muzzle, to Alec Baldwin in a costume of his for 1998's Macbeth.

But Menkes is most beloved for dressing the local LGBTQ+ leather & fetish community, telling Interview: “I don’t want to dress everybody. I just want to dress the person who wants me to dress them...& I don't want factories working for me. I want to keep it in my hands."

Thank you for looking!