Despite the fact that it’s sweltering hot here in southern California (particularly for those of us without air conditioning at home), fall clothes are everywhere — and that means lots of leather.

In the past, I generally associated leather with ladies who are much cooler and ediger than me. But now that Talbots carries a leather pencil skirt, I think even the preppiest among us are to safe to wear leather (or faux leather) without looking like a punk rock wannabe or Oops-I-Did-It-Again-era Britney.

Unfortunately, the Talbots and J.Crew versions of the leather-panel pencil skirt are pretty pricey. J.Crew’s is more than $300 with tax, and Talbots’ is close to $200. But there are several versions that are a bit more affordable, mostly using faux leather (or pleather, as we used to call it in the olden days).

The Banana Republic version, just to the right of “vs” in the image above, is $80 right now during a limited-time sale. ASOS has two versions, a faux leather one for $47 and a plus-sized version in real leather on sale for $51. Dorothy Perkins also has a faux leather one for $39.

Whatever the price range, it appears that this look that will be very popular this fall and winter. Just try to avoid red pleather body suits.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.