Ryan Leslie Owns 30 Leather Jackets, But Only Wears Two

Ryan Leslie is a class act. Always precise with his word and dressed to a T, Ryan portrays himself in a way that should make all celebrities stop and take note.

NEW VIDEO: Ryan Leslie "Good Girl"

Usually rocking a pair of shades and a leather jacket, Ryan is a self-educated male fashionista who has an eye for impeccable style.

We spoke with Ryan about his taste in fashion and how it's in his genes to be dress with all that class. Check out what he had to say about it below.

GlobalGrind: Who or what influences your personal style?

Ryan Leslie: My mother and I tell this story all the time; my mother actually when we were growing up (my parents were salvation army officers), we had to wear uniforms growing up because they were very much about equality. The same way in Catholic Schools, or in organizations like the Salvation Army, or in the military you wear a uniform to equalize everyone, so people can be focused on what their missions are.

But when we did have the opportunity to be outside of uniforms, my mother - because she was a seamstress herself, not by choice but by necessity growing up – she would sew my clothes and my sister’s clothes and we would go to the fabric stores and we would pick denims. I was the first kid in my school to have MC Hammer pants because my mom made them personally.

When I went to Harvard, there’s a boutique in Boston called Louis, and they would have all of the extremely overpriced international men’s books from overseas. So, with L’uomo Vogue, normally I would spend $20 on that magazine and I continue to be a subscriber of that publication 'til this day, I would just be able to get a sense of what it meant to have a tradition of craftsmanship and tailoring and what that actually meant to not only someone who potentially could have gone to Wall Street, but heads of state.

I became a really avid student of all things menswear. So tailored shirts, suits, the factories in Naples. And even to that point, I could afford the $20 L’uomo Vogue, I could not afford the designer apparel and the Neiman Marcus in Copley Plaza, etc. So I found a tailor there, and would continue to tradition that my mother started and go and find fabrics, you know. And anything that I saw in advertisements or campaigns, I would find a way to have it made, and I had the liberty, since it was personally being tailored, to modify it to my own design or my own taste.

Is that something that you still do today?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

So are you more of a shoe guy or a clothes guy? I think you kind of answered that. (laughs)

Yeah. I mean, I would love to find a factory that would engage me or humor me the way that my tailors have over the years, but I haven’t put in the time or research to find a great shoe factory.