Do you know Moscow?
Not Moscow, Russia, with its black Zils, its big mobsters in hats and the other typical products that Westerners look for there, like women and vodka. No !
Moscow, Idaho, 24,000 souls under the aegis of a pastor who owns a popular television channel, and where the local equivalent of herbal vodka is the bad whiskey secretly distilled by Cassidy, in the back room of his bar.
Incidentally, this is also where Fok Yan-Leung lives, the administrator of StyleForum , the largest forum dedicated (mostly) to workwear on the internet and undoubtedly one of the authorities on the subject. So not all guys who wear workwear are green, hairy hipsters!
"Hipster? What is a hipster?"
Leung draws inspiration from the great classics of American history - the Wild West and working-class professions up until the 1950s.
Because workwear is a style of real simplicity, therefore easy to master, it adapts to most body types with its clothing cuts designed to make you feel comfortable.
Resurgence of workwear style
Although it has always been more or less there - the lumberjack style is the no-fuss style par excellence - it has experienced a huge resurgence since 2008, notably because of the crisis: people are starting to buy more sustainable clothing . The Americans would say “ honestly crafted ”.
While most fashion movements have, until now, had an aesthetic rather than a practical aim, we are witnessing a rejection of the metrosexual trends of recent years.
And even a desire to rediscover a somewhat idealized “lost virility” of which workwear is the perfect expression.
Slender silhouette, rare materials, glam-pop heritage. Workwear is the polar opposite of what Hedi Slimane initiated at Saint Laurent. Credits Saint Laurent Spring Summer 2015
This heritage (we call this type of brand “ heritage brands” in English) goes back almost as far as the American spirit itself.
One of the best-known mythical figures of the Old West is Paul Bunyan , a sort of archetypal Canadian lumberjack: plaid flannel shirt, heavy wool hat, suspenders, selvedge jeans and thick workboots of the kind produced by Red Wings.
The perfect hipster then, except that he is six meters tall and carries around a blue bull almost as big as him, answering to the sweet name of Babe.
Paul Bunyan - Credit Jack Brummet Illustration
Brief perspective
To fully understand the roots of workwear and the importance of the working world across the Atlantic, we are going to take a little sociological detour, fasten your seat belts and move on!
George Dumézil, one of the greatest mythologists of the last century, explains that every society is organized according to three major functions, each having a fundamental role:
- the priest ensures the spiritual nourishment of society
- the warrior protects her and maintains order
- the artisan feeds her, protected by the warrior, etc.
You can know fifty languages very well and dare to wear your pants like Mr. Dumézil.
The artisan is always at the base of the pyramid, he meets an essential need (eating), but without the warrior or religious dimension.
However, American society was built after modernity and the abandonment of this traditional structure. The craftsman found himself at the top of the pyramid and his figure ended up taking over all the roles. A civilization of workers, entrepreneurs and workers; where the work of the ax is more glorified than that of the sword.
Berets, loose pants and camaraderie Don't look down!
Where most countries of the old world have had two thousand years of tales to build popular consciousness, America was built on the mythification of the immigrant, absorbed in a gigantic corpus as mythical as it is artificial.
This is something to understand well in order to integrate the passion of certain workwear supporters who, in our period of crisis, cling to what remains of the American myth, through clothing.
But concretely, what is workwear then?
Workwear style: pragmatic, accessible and comfortable
Most trends in fashion favor aesthetic function over practical function. Workwear is the opposite. We could even say that this is its main characteristic: a search for simplicity, the purely functional side taking precedence over the beauty of the whole .
This khaki jacket is best worn with a determined expression, as if someone is mad at your motorcycle. Credits Thebikeshed
Workwear is also a love of vintage and authenticity , manufactured “in France” or “in the USA”; even to Japan for certain pieces, since Japan has some of the best denim weavers in the world . An assembly of clothing that transmits one thing: time. Its patina and its work.
The workwear style corresponds to a wide range of body types. While most styles ideally require a trim body, in the imagination conveyed by the “model size”, workwear is aimed at more normal people, you, us, everyone. It's difficult to wear dark, or even a classic shirt-chino-sneakers combo, while being 1m65 and very thin or, conversely, being a 1m90 mirrored wardrobe.
Lookbook Neighborood SS 20015
Workwear has the advantage of blurring a silhouette with loose cuts and enhancing its virility with authentic materials. In addition, the workwear style is comfortable , you don't need to be a genius to see that you feel better in a thick flannel shirt than in a white Dior cotton shirt from the Slimane period.
Finally, it is a style which, unlike the dark style for example, requires very little investment. Obviously, as soon as we move upmarket and start with much more durable pieces (which is the reason for this style), prices increase accordingly; but in terms of pure investment-durability, it is the least expensive style to acquire, with most of the pieces that make it up being designed to last.
Workwear goes from this... to this. Credits The Sartorialist
Well-maintained APC jeans can last around ten years. A pair of Red Wings or Heschung, a dozen. Or, according to the eternal equation: 13€/year for jeans, 30 for a good pair of timeless shoes. We did worse as a placement.
You have to read the entire pages on StyleForum where members talk about the fading of jeans or the different shades of red worn by a pair of Aldens - Indiana Jones' carpenter boots. Credits Thebikeshed
Especially since if you don't have the necessary purse, it's a style with a very hipster connotation, and therefore in vogue, and therefore followed by most PAP brands (which we obviously don't recommend, but you also need to know how to do it). faced with student reality sometimes), therefore accessible at Uniqlo which has made it a specialty (let's leave H&M and Zara where they are).
Master the workwear style in your looks
The workwear style is the expression of a working style. There are therefore almost as many workwear styles as there are craft professions.
Some prefer a more lumberjack style, others are inspired by the gas station attendants of the 50s. We have a friend in the editorial office who pushes the vice to the point of walking around with a handkerchief in the back pocket of his jeans in reference to American gas station attendants. Midwesterners who wiped grease off their hands more easily that way.
This means that if a basic outfit works, you can try as many variations on it as you have inspiration. Neighborhood, for example, is a Japanese brand directly inspired by the biker lifestyle of the 1950s. The basic outfit is really not complicated.
Some heritage brands are inspired by old photographs. Credits Neighborhood 2015 SS Collection.
A simple shirt
A simple shirt:
- light monochromatic color (white/blue/pastel);
- “old school” stripes (like hickory, vertically striped denim indigo on white);
- simple patterns (like gingham, cotton with small crosses of two colors) or more coarse (like tartan: the “big checked shirts” of trappers).
Gitman Vintage shirt in gray oxford. Credits Present London.
- In a worked material, which looks both manufactured and worn over time (no “natural” materials): chambray, denim, flannel, oxford , etc. Preferably a model that is a replica of a past model.
Jeans
Whether raw or washed using traditional techniques. Straight or loose cut , see the cuts of Levi's from the beginning of the 20th century, knowing that certain purists claim this and that we are entering into a purely aesthetic approach. It is not necessarily a cut that highlights the body shape.
In a canvas of Japan (city of Kojima, where most of the denim factories are located) or the United States (Cone Mills).
Naked And Famous Weird Guy, 36 months of heavy wear. Credits Rawr Denim.com
Jeans brands : Naked & Famous, Allevol, Gustin, Samurai, Skull, Studio d'Artisan, Oni Shoai, Warehouse, Momotaro, Japan Blue Jeans, Evisu, 45RPM, Ruell & Ray,... and of course APC, although some brands mentioned above far surpass them in quality.
A pair of work boots
Literally “work shoes” , solid, from a brand renowned for this type of model.
In bulk, the Beckman from Red Wings (knowing that there are two very popular variants, the 9016 and the 9030, in the original oxblood shades), the “Indy Boot” from Alden (model 403 in brick red, originally the carpenter shoes popularized on the feet of Harrison Ford), the Classic 20065 from Chippewa , etc.
Redwings Beckman 9016, used model. Credits Brandshop.ru
The advantage of this type of shoe is once again its comfort and durability. These are models originally designed as orthopedic shoes (the Indy Boot), or at least as a “chic” alternative model to a country life (Red Wings). Their beauty lies in their aging and the patina they acquire with the maintenance given over the years.
Few or no accessories
Forget the rings, bracelets and necklaces that you can find in other styles, workwear keeps it simple and does it well.
Invest in a chunky belt that will age well. The benchmark brand in this area is Tanner's Goods, whose belts and bags are renowned throughout the United States.
A durable messenger bag which, as a fun detail, takes its name, the “messenger”, from the Pony Express. Originally, this practical bag also served as a messenger bag thanks to the addition of loops at the back which made it possible to attach a pair over the saddle, from Filson, or better, Stanley & Sons, specialists in the origin of the blacksmith's apron and incidentally the Rolls-Royce of the handmade leather bag.
Messenger bag being tanned by Stanley & Sons. Credits Stanley & Sons
Messenger Bag Brands : Stanley & Sons, Filson, Hollows Leather, Timothy Oulton, Teranishi, Guarded Goods, The Superior Labor, Archival Clothing, etc.
For cold weather, a denim jacket
Like the iconic Trucker Jacket from Levi's , but given the quality of their recent productions, we will fall back on an equivalent model better made from any of the jeans brands mentioned above, or even from Rick Owens or Visvim.
A large work jacket from Woolrich Woolen Mills, Engineered Garments or Mark McNairy and/or a simple, heavy wool sweater with a round neck, from a brand that makes simple heavy wool sweaters with a round neck (especially Scandinavian brands). like SNS Herning, Our Legacy or Filippa K).
Rogue Territory Willard Field Jacket. Credits Rogue Territory.
From there and depending on your tastes, you can go for almost anything: military wear with camo patterns, biker wear with leather jackets, explorer wear with parkas and hats in reference to Antarctic expeditions, etc., etc.
The important thing is to build a solid workwear look and then experiment with more sophisticated stylistic variations.
Brands and inspirations for your workwear looks
Engineered Garments
Engineered Garments was created in 1999 by Daiki Suzuki and has since established itself as the flagship brand of Japanese workwear.
The name comes from a pattern maker hired to sketch out the first draft of patterns for the first collection. She found such attention to the pieces more like elaboration than design.
Like Visvim, which we already talked about in the chapter on the art of dressing well, Engineered Garments is Japanese, in every sense of the word: both in origin and in the borderline manic obsession with detail and the making.
Engineered Garment SS12. Credits Nepenthes.jp
Japan after the Second World War may have hated the United States, but the Empire of the Rising Sun was collapsing. On its ruins a new culture arrived, the opposite of everything the islanders knew at the time, with its jeans, its chewing gum, its Coca Cola and its GIs.
The post-war occupation of the Americans had a decisive influence on Japanese culture. It has definitely emerged from its cautious isolation while retaining certain typical traits which still make it a country apart today: even after having lived there twenty years, a gaijin (foreigner) remains a gaijin.
Engineered Garments FW11. Credits End.
We can trace the majority of the Japanese workwear movement to this period and Engineered Garments is no exception to the rule: the brand is strongly inspired by a whole world of sportswear, teddies, football, but also troops in cantonment with camouflage patterns, chinos...
Woolrich Woolen Mills
Woolrich is a “heritage brand” that provides shelter from bad weather and other vindictive creatures, like the trappers and frontier men of the early 19th century.
Since 2006, they have enlisted the services of Daiki Suzuki , before the brand was taken over in 2010 by Mark McNairy . It is a concrete manifestation of the different types of workwear : if Engineered Garments sticks to its military heritage and gives itself colorful breaks with liberty, Woolrich's specialty remains the guys who hunted bears with their bare hands and made the beavers disappear with their cabins.
Woolrich Woolen Mills FW13. Credits WPLavouri.
So we find big parkas, big wool jackets, big flannel shirts, big hats, and big velvet pants . With big beards. Hunter wear in a way.
Woolrich’s basic concept could be the definition of workwear: “garment with a purpose”. Functional clothing, or the ability to deconstruct traditional clothing and bring it up to date by leaving the details that make up its essence intact, while modernizing the cut.
Woolrich Woolen Mills FW12. Styleledger Credits
Every detail has a practical purpose: whether it's a patch pocket for more space or an internal elbow reinforcement to reinforce an area where the garment usually wears out more quickly.
In the same spirit (and unlike Engineered Garments which seeks the “factory” side in its creations), the brand makes a point of using untreated natural materials to take advantage of their waterproofing and imperishable properties.
Mark McNairy
Mark McNairy is something of a multi-faceted machine, capable of handling four brands while acquiring the nickname McNasty for his fiery temper, cold manner and for sticking smiley faces on the soles of his shoe line.
He himself says he doesn't want to take fashion seriously. In the meantime, he revolutionized the aging J. Press brand, took over the management of Woolrich Woolen Mills after Daiki Suzuki before slamming the door in a hurricane, launched his Richelieu brand (New Amsterdam), bought vintage Maseratis, has a problems with Brooklyn hipsters and chain smokes cigarettes after his shows instead of stressing out backstage.
Mark McNairy Fall-Winter 2013. Credits GQ
If Engineered Garments represents “manufactured” workwear, Woolrich represents the raw American heritage, McNairy is the Ivy League student (prestigious American universities like Harvard and Yale) from the 1950s who would have landed in a flying saucer in the 21st century to discover Starbucks, touchscreen tablets and the ironic lifestyle that accompanies their users.
For example, one of the pairs is called “You talkin' to me?”, in reference to Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver. His work looks towards both sportswear and preppy classicism, appropriating each with a certain detached sarcasm, a permanent humor visible in all his work (ironic model names, chick yellow welts, bi-patterned vests, etc.).
Look at his cap, you now know which cut to choose for your workwear jeans... Credits Sebastian Petrovski
He is literally revered by a significant number of fashion players, including Nick Wooster for example.
It's quite sublime but necessarily complicated to match, even if certain models can break up a more formal outfit in a fun way (its “Monkey Business” cargo pants with camouflaged pockets for example).
Other brand ideas...
- Engineered Garments
- Woolrich Woolen Mills (Daiki Suzuki)
- Carhartt
- Visvim (and other Japanese brands in the Complex article 50 japanese brands etc.)
- Heschung
- APC
- Naked & Famous
- Allevol
- Harrington
- Ralph Lauren Vintage (RRL)
- The Surveyor
- Leviʼs (and its trucker jackets)
- Tellason
- Filson
- Dickies 1922
- Brooks Brothers
- Pendleton
- Red Wing
- Eagle
- Wolverine 1000 Mile
- Stanley & Sons (bags)
- J.Press
- Barbour
- Alden
- Apolis
- White Mountaineering (Yosuke Aizawa)
- Nigel Cabourn
- Albam
- Margareth Howell
- Heritage Research
