Warm-Weather Leather

Trendy celebs are getting revved about this season's revamped biker jackets—cropped, curve-hugging and made of ultralight calfskin for spring and summer wear. Forget the Harleys and tattoos; this year's model is less biker chick than biker chic. "It accents a woman's body," says actress Shannen Doherty, "the way it should be accented." The leader of the pack: the sleek $3,120 motocross jacket designed by Gucci's Tom Ford that has turned up on stars like Madonna and Helen Hunt, "It's sculptural, sexy and modern," says Ford. "It's meant to fit like a second skin."

Indeed, these soft, comfortable jackets are best worn over a skimpy T-shirt—or over nothing at all. "They give very good cleavage," declares L.A. stylist Jane Ross, who dresses Rene Russo, Candice Bergen and Goldie Hawn. For the woman who has got something to flaunt, "these jackets are sexy and bad," says John Eshaya, the women's buyer at the Ron Herman Los Angeles boutique (Courteney Cox Arquette and Cameron Diaz are customers), where black $780 versions by L.A. label Sold are flying off the racks. "And bad is always in."

with Steven Cojocaru in Los Angeles