Workwear - built to last, men are workin' it

San Francisco Chronicle / sfgate.com ^ | Sunday, January 17, 2010 | Beth Hughes, Special to The Chronicle

[thecodont]

Workwear is the clothing worn by almost mythical American figures - cowboys, miners, farmers and railroad engineers.

Right now it's trending chic. Big-name international designers are collaborating with so-called U.S. heritage brands warmed back to life by fashion's bright lights. This matters not at all to many men, from high school students to octogenarians, who've always worn this stuff because it keeps them warm, it keeps them dry and it lasts close to forever.

If it seems a bit jarring that workwear is enjoying a moment when unemployment is high, job creation low and the median household income falling nationwide ($50,303 in 2008, down from $52,163 in 2007), ask yourself this: Since when has fashion been about reality?

Fashion, says Claire Watson, an independent vintage curator in New York, "is about picking up on the zeitgeist. It's a response to the situation."

"When the economy is bad, you want a look that's associated with employment, no matter what the employment is," says Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of the menswear design department at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). "Workwear is coming at a time when the country is saying, 'Let's get back to work' at a very primal level."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/17/LVNM1BDCUH.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0curLMHb7

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

At the YMCA with a Zipper in the back. Real Manly Men.

[thecodont]

The kind of essential jobs which deal with manufacturing and industry find that kind of attire acceptable and practical and necessary. We as a country really, really need to build up our industrial and manufacturing base.

[whodathunkit]

I remember when Levis jeans were reasonably priced and long wearing. Unfortunately they came to be a popular style and the price more than doubled. I quit wearing them because I wasn't about to pay for a name. I hope it doesn't happen again with 'work clothes'. I don't know what I'll be wearing if it did.

[GeronL]

as unlikely as leftists wearing combat boots...

[bert]

.....I’ve worn Carharts for my entire working life,
to the point that I no longer have hair on the outside of
my legs, it’s all been worn off by the canvas......

I started wearing Carhart jeans in 2007 and lost my leg hair. I was worried about growing old and poor circulation. You made my day.

You’re not old are you? :)

[Gondring]

I dunno...I bet the Zero wouldn’t have that same reaction!

[nmh]

“The kind of essential jobs which deal with manufacturing and industry find that kind of attire acceptable and practical and necessary. We as a country really, really need to build up our industrial and manufacturing base.”

You sound just like Obama!

There is NO WAY that will happen UNDER Obama.

Unions jack up prices and there is no rational businessman around that would go for that. They are MOVING IT OVER SEAS. Mexico, China, Thailand to name a few are reaping the benefits of manufacturing jobs and will continue to do so. Our cost of living is HIGHER than there. People there are thrilled to have a “good job” for their cost of living.

We have health care hell on the horizon, higher taxes, Cap and Trade and ILLEGAL Immigration ready to slam the door shut permanently on manufacturing jobs.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Some of the attorneys I’ve seen here in Flagstaff, AZ, wear jeans and sports coat to court, not the prosecutors from the DA’s office though.

[workerbee]

[nmh]

BTW, as a capitalist, I am NOT interested in paying 2-4 times as much for a product or service that someone, anyone can do for less. I will NOT fund lazy unions with their over priced products. I avoid anything union.

I am quite content to let the MARKET play out it's proper role. Let those who are competitive WIN. Manufacturing in the U.S. is a losing proposition.

[Nepeta]

Yuch. I am a female physician and HATE men in scrubs. I find most physicians nauseating having been around them my entire life. Now a man in Carharts well that is another thing. No man with manacured softness for me. I want a real man. One who can do most anything. Like use a chainsaw withoug injury, change oil, put in plugs, rebuld the dang motor if he needs to, build a pole barn, kill the meat for supper, make his own beer and grow his own smoke, and well you can guess the rest.

Men who are afraid to get their hands dirty are appalling. So delicate, so dainty, so..unmanly.

I don't mind doing dirty jobs...as long as I can get hot water and soap at the end of the day. Men who leave dirty, physical jobs for women to do are the worse. I've worked with several such slugs.

[Reddy]

“Now a man in Carharts well that is another thing. No man with manicured softness for me. I want a real man. One who can do most anything. Like use a chainsaw without injury, change oil, put in plugs, rebuild the dang motor if he needs to, build a pole barn, kill the meat for supper, make his own beer and grow his own smoke, and well you can guess the rest.”

I totally agree with you about a Carhart guy... yum!

But I love seeing my dh in scrubs! Hot! (We’ve been married 30 years.) ((and he’s not a dr.!) :)

[Katoolie]

Lots of good benefits of them work boots.

I aint talkin bout the usual stuff like ankle support, keepin your feets dry in a swamp, meetin womens in honky tonks. That aint the half of it. As one who has worn work boots all my life, I am am always finding new benefits of wearin them.

I dont lace mine up to the top. That way ifin I gots a hole in my pocket,I wont lose any pocket change.Any pocket change will fall down my laig and get caught by my boot !

The otha day I wuz in an all you can eat Bar BQ chicken place. After I et my fill and wuz walkin out to my truck I started limpin cause there was somethin in my boot. I look down and there wuz a drum stick caught in the top of my boot!

[Fred Hayek]

It’s LOW END JOBS.

It’s also what I wear when I go to a client’s jobsite, even when I am setting up a proposal. My business is control systems engineering (refineries, chem plants, and manufacturing). If I show up at a client’s site wearing a Brooks Brothers suit to do a pre-bid project walkdown, I would be laughed off the plant site. In my case, however, it’s not Carharts, it’s Nomex (especially in a refinery), as well as hardhat, steeltoe boots, safety glasses, and gloves for climbing.

[VOA]

bump

[Tailback]

So you’re a female physician that likes blue collar guys in Carhartts.

Two questions: Are you single? Do you own a boat? If so, could you email me a picture of the boat?

Just kidding, I couldn’t resist.

[John.Galt2012]

I have bought Dickey’s for more than a decade...until I started noticing all the gangsta’s wearing them half way down their butts.

[raybbr]

MSA hard hat or filson tin cap. Retired now so not standing in front of a 2000degree furnace every day, sure miss seeing that hot metal though.

Tell me about it. I was watching a runaway ladle of steel one day and the plastic face shield started melting in front of my face.

Those were the days.

[Randy Larsen]

Have you been checked for Diabetes lately?

Diabetes will slow the blood circulation in the legs and reduce hair production. So I've been told...

[Tailback]

What goes around comes around. Back in the late 60’s and 70’s a lot of “urban trendy” folks wore denim shirts, jackets, work jeans etc... On youtube videos of Jim Croce he’s got Caterpillar patches sewn onto his denim work shirt. I have a hard time believing the Cat rep gave him that after he bought a D-7

I wear Carhartts and Riggs now because Levi’s went to poop. I remember buying 501 shrink to fits for $11.99/pr at back to school sales. Then Levi’s decided to move the factory out of the US, changed the cut, and changed the denim quality. The denim they use is so cheap now that they start falling apart after the first wash. I used to get 3 pairs a year that would last me until the next school year.