Here’s a little Matrix secret the fashion people don’t want you to know: Neo’s coat – that long black trench that launched leather back into the forefront of fashion – wasn’t made of leather.

Of course, that fact didn’t stop designers everywhere from jumping onto the Matrix trend back when the first installment of the sci-fi thriller was released in 1999 – bringing back the leather pants that hadn't been seen since the '80s and sealing black's status as "the new black."

Expect to see those trends reloaded this fall, yet again inspired by The Matrix's neo-futuristic take on fashion. Future mode no longer means space suits that look like they're made of tin foil – when you jack into the Matrix, it's all about clothes that are sharp, edgy and black.

"So much of the time, you’ll be watching a science-fiction movie and you’ll say 'Ha, ha, look at that funny hat,'" Matrix costume designer Kym Barrett said in an interview with Newsweek. "Someone spent hours not making it out of tin foil, but it still has that corny sci-fi look. One of our big things was to make costumes that the audience could relate to."

Though like its prequel, this summer’s The Matrix: Reloaded is set 200 years into the future, Barrett says in designing the costumes, she avoided fashion magazines and comic books in order to develop a Matrix style that was independent of all previous notions of what the future looks like. "I wanted to go just from the script," she says, "to come up with clothes that weren’t connected to a certain time or place."

Mila Daniely, vice president of design for Danier Leather, says Barrett’s interpretation of futuristic style may signal a return to the basics as the world gets more advanced.

"Everything, if you look around, develops faster than the human brain can comprehend," she told CTV.ca. "It’s very hard for people – that’s why we go back to our roots. Very often we go ethnic, that’s why we go back to religion, to explore different forms of hidden understanding, just because we’re losing that tie.

"It’s a human sense of feeling weaker and weaker under the pressure of technology of today and I think it’s just going back to natural and holding onto something that’s known to us and we feel good in."

Daniely says Barrett’s interpretation of Trinity’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) costumes – tight, black and super-shiny – also reflects a new take on femininity: powerful, sexy and soft, all at the same time.

"The woman of today is more strong and confident," Daniely says. "She has to act and resolve many things at the same time … and look great and be strong intellectually and physically and emotionally.

"Leather is the perfect material to express that whole feeling and personality. It’s fitted like a second skin, it almost prevents the freedom of movement because it’s so fitted and formed, and still it’s very comfortable. Plus it’s very natural, which evokes a Mother Nature second-skin type of thing."

Fashionistas won’t have to wait 200 years to capture that. Flare’s fashion director, Adrienne Shoom, says the look was "all over the runways" for fall. Everyone, from established houses like Balnciaga and Dior to up-and-comers like Sean John and Costume National, is copping the Matrix’s shiny, techno-futuristic look.

"I don’t know if designers were inspired by the first movie that came out, but it’s coinciding with the second Matrix," Shoom told CTV.ca. "This whole Matrix thing is almost at a cult status and then this whole trend of future and techno-future and blade runner clothes is huge in Fall 2003.

Shoom describes the look as "a lot of black leather, it’s a lot of form-fitting clothing, leather over-the-knee boots, body-hugging leather leggings and leather jackets and jump suits."

At Danier, Daniely expects the Matrix look to be a "must-have" for seasons to come.

"In the long run, it will certainly have an influence," she says, pointing to Neo’s black trench as an example.

"That item may become a classic for another several seasons," says Daniely.

Oh, and as for Neo’s coat in the movie?

It was a wool blend.