Who Gets to Wear Workwear?

[bigmanbigtruck]

This prison uniform is where rock bottom was reached. I cannot even begin to comprehend a mindset of a person buying this. And for several hundred dollars at that.

Well if you don’t make bail, might as well spend it lookin good on the inside

 

[El Marro]

This prison uniform is where rock bottom was reached. I cannot even begin to comprehend a mindset of a person buying this. And for several hundred dollars at that.

I remember when RMC dropped that a few years back and it left all of us here scratching our heads in wonder. I could see it being part of a very expensive Halloween costume, but on the other hand, I don’t even particularly think it’s funny to pretend you’re in prison for Halloween...

 

[Benny Holiday]

Generally I don't care what people wear so long as it makes them happy. There is, however, one thing that annoys me and that is inner-city people running around dressed in cowboy shirts, boots and ten gallon hats, driving enormous Ford pickup trucks (you can't even park those in a city with enough space and infrastructure for 3 million people that now has 5.7 million crammed into it. People who have scarcely seen a blade of grass in their lives, let alone actually been on the back of a horse.

I think a lot of it has to do with the attitude of said urban hillbillies, plenty of ego to go round there, but also maybe a bit because I grew up on the edge of Sydney, where suburbia met farmland and open fields. There were girls in high school who rode horses to school! There's something about the pretend cowboys and girls (rhinestone cowboys?) that just irks me.

As to the prison uniform, why the hell would anyone wear that????

 

[El Marro]

There is, however, one thing that annoys me and that is inner-city people running around dressed in cowboy shirts, boots and ten gallon hats, driving enormous Ford pickup trucks (you can't even park those in a city with enough space and infrastructure for 3 million people that now has 5.7 million crammed into it. People who have scarcely seen a blade of grass in their lives, let alone actually been on the back of a horse.

Phew, for a second, I thought you might be talking about me, but my enormous pickup truck is a Ram, not a Ford.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Generally I don't care what people wear so long as it makes them happy. There is, however, one thing that annoys me and that is inner-city people running around dressed in cowboy shirts, boots and ten gallon hats, driving enormous Ford pickup trucks (you can't even park those in a city with enough space and infrastructure for 3 million people that now has 5.7 million crammed into it. People who have scarcely seen a blade of grass in their lives, let alone actually been on the back of a horse.

Great rant. In the US of A the term for these folks would be "all hat, no cattle."

 

[Eagledog]

Phew, for a second, I thought you might be talking about me, but my enormous pickup truck is a Ram, not a Ford. View attachment 669575

Love giant hats! It's the best way to keep skin cancer at bay. Fewer trips to the dermatologist.

 

[BobHufford]

Great rant. In the US of A the term for these folks would be "all hat, no cattle."

My wife got me these stickers for my big truck to go along with my big hats.

 

[torfjord]

My wife got me these stickers for my big truck to go along with my big hats.

View attachment 669576

View attachment 669577

View attachment 669579

 

[Albe64]

Generally I don't care what people wear so long as it makes them happy. There is, however, one thing that annoys me and that is inner-city people running around dressed in cowboy shirts, boots and ten gallon hats, driving enormous Ford pickup trucks (you can't even park those in a city with enough space and infrastructure for 3 million people that now has 5.7 million crammed into it. People who have scarcely seen a blade of grass in their lives, let alone actually been on the back of a horse.

I think a lot of it has to do with the attitude of said urban hillbillies, plenty of ego to go round there, but also maybe a bit because I grew up on the edge of Sydney, where suburbia met farmland and open fields. There were girls in high school who rode horses to school! There's something about the pretend cowboys and girls (rhinestone cowboys?) that just irks me.

As to the prison uniform, why the hell would anyone wear that????

I get your point but I'd like to say (sorry for my poor english) that here in Italy (no cowboys at all except a few fringe communities scattered here and there) the cowboy aestethic is popular in certain subcultures (rockabilly and biker) as a tribute to the man who lives in contact with nature and wilderness, as an anti-mainstream (luxury bling bling), anti-finance guys message. Posers? For sure, but at least the outfits are nicer than many others (imho)

 

[MrProper]

Posers? For sure, but at least the outfits are nicer than many others (imho)

Posers? Isn't that what we all are in this forum? lol
Well, I'm afraid I can't rule that out, at least for myself ;-)

 

[Albe64]

Posers? Isn't that what we all are in this forum? lol
Well, I'm afraid I can't rule that out, at least for myself ;-)

Yes, I guess that's what we are, at least in part. The upside is that we keep some manufacturing/aestethic traditions alive, in a world that is running toward schizophrenia

 

[Monitor]

I remember when RMC dropped that a few years back and it left all of us here scratching our heads in wonder. I could see it being part of a very expensive Halloween costume, but on the other hand, I don’t even particularly think it’s funny to pretend you’re in prison for Halloween...

I've seen quite a few fit pics of people in this trash and I genuinely wonder how come RMC didn't release a whole line of prison clothes.
I'm sure people wearing this would have no issues dripping themselves in a 100% accurate, $1200 Auschwitz prisoner uniform by RMC, made from a thick wool-blend fabric that mixes recycled wool/nylon yarns for the warp and wool/angora yarns for the weft, with 100% cotton trims on the inside for extra durability, woven in Japan's Bishu region, an area with a long history and specialization in wool products, it's thoroughly brushed for a maximally soft hand and slightly hairy texture across its face.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Phew, for a second, I thought you might be talking about me, but my enormous pickup truck is a Ram, not a Ford. View attachment 669575

No you look like the actual real deal to me. No rhinestones on you El Marro!

 

[Edward]

Most modern american workwear is high vis. Guessing that’s true other places. Can you imagine in 50 yrs a website full of middle aged outerwear nerds debating whether a high viz hoodie without a tag is carhart or dickies! Dorks.



oh…..wait.

It'll happen in time. It's nothing new, of course. I've seen plenty of photos from early eighties fashion scenes and subcultures where donkey jackets had long been a thing. By the early 80s when some of those were routinely being produced for issued uniform by local authorities with fluorescent orange pvc shoulder panels, those were making their way into being fashionable in some quarters. Pretty sure I've seen selected fluoro workwear bits also being adapted into rave culture in the 90s, and cybergoth stuff over the last twenty years. It'll happen at some point.

Speaking as someone who has spent the last 26 years working construction full time I give you all a pass to wear workwear.
All I ask in return is that the motorcycle riders in the crowd give me a pass when I throw on a Vanson or a Langlitz jacket, and the aviators don’t mind me wearing a flight jacket every now and then.

If they don't, may they be haunted by the spirits of the hundreds of thousands of railway firemen for whom engineer boots were originally intended...

I have a pair of bird dogs, and a closet full of camouflage jackets, pants, shirts, hats and gloves. All of the patterns are designed to match the terrain of the species being hunted.
The best part is the functionality. They all have plenty of pockets, are super lightweight, unlimited mobility, and offer temperature regulation whether sitting in a tree or climbing long distances.
I would say camo hunting clothes make the very best, work wear.
The durability, comfort and practically can't be beat.
No wonder you see so many people wearing it daily who never hunt.
Long live the camouflage work wear trend!

I've always enjoyed the irony of camouflage gear gonig from being designed to be covert to becoming part of a fashion scene where it is valued for how it looks and being all about standing out.

But yes - much as many of us may instinctively recoil from mainstream fashion, there's a lot to be said for the significantly increased accessibility granted by a large increase in demand for things we like. Certainly at one point in time, maybe even still now, the availability at (relatively) affordable prices of many workwear lines was far more down to demand from the much-maligned hipster community than self-identifying vintage fans, many of whom had gotten into the game in the 90s and were indignant at the idea of paying anything like what a decent repro would cost when they'd bought an original 1930s / 40s X for pennies in a thrift store in 1992..

I've seen quite a few fit pics of people in this trash and I genuinely wonder how come RMC didn't release a whole line of prison clothes.
I'm sure people wearing this would have no issues dripping themselves in a 100% accurate, $1200 Auschwitz prisoner uniform by RMC, made from a thick wool-blend fabric that mixes recycled wool/nylon yarns for the warp and wool/angora yarns for the weft, with 100% cotton trims on the inside for extra durability, woven in Japan's Bishu region, an area with a long history and specialization in wool products, it's thoroughly brushed for a maximally soft hand and slightly hairy texture across its face.

There are clearly a lot of folks out there buying these, because a lot of brands now produce jeans and jackets and bits in it. I quite like the jackets myself, though I'm unlikely to buy one given I can only really afford the Chinese produced options, and they universally stop a size or two sizes too small to get my shoulders into. I don't imagine anyone buying these is buying into a prison aesthetic specifically. Not that I can condemn that - part of the reason I like the look of a black peacoat with jeans is undeniably I was a big fan of Escape from Alkatraz. Less directly, I can't help but wonder whether me liking seal A2s is a form of liking something associated with a prison camp? Stylistically, the reason I like an A2 has always been explicitly because I saw The Great Escape at an impressionable age. But I don't think many people (despite the labelling of these garments) really associate them with prison much. I mean, when was the last time these were *actual* prison wear? Blue denim and grey sweatshirts, or orange jumpsuits in the US look more prison wear to me these days, tbh...

I'd like to hope nobody would ever reproduce an Auschwitz prison uniform for fashion purposes. I've heard of them being worn at a WW2 event in the UK once - as nightwear by a bunch of guys who spent the day dressed as an SS unit, all with the 'correct' haircut.... I suspect any credible business knows that to produce these would be the end of their business. Though that's from a European perspective, of course. I do remember an article about twenty years ago about a fashion in Korea for full SS uniforms; one of the accompanying photos had a Korean guy dressed, very deliberately so, as an eerily accurate looking Heinrich Himmler. I suspect though for this sort of thing to gain any sort of ground it would have to be sold somewhere that the horrors of that particular part of history never directly impacted and were largely unknown. Maybe timing also has something to do with it - after all, blackwatch / Government tartan is very often sported nowadays in England and Scotland both by people with no awareness of its origins.

 

[dudewuttheheck]

I think it really does depend. Personally, I would argue most if not all "workwear" garments that are 40 years old or more are fair game as nobody is currently using those items for work.

Plus, a lot of items that are labeled as workwear from back in the day also doubled as simple casual wear. For example, most straight zip half belt leather jackets from the 30s and 40s were worn to blue collar jobs, but also sometimes worn by white collar guys as casual wear or for the outdoors. We've seen the vintage photos to prove it. To me, something like that is just clothing and not specifically workwear.

Modern workwear is often pretty specialized so you'd have to try a lot harder to be a workwear poser nowadays IMO.

 

[barnabus]

Modern workwear is often pretty specialized so you'd have to try a lot harder to be a workwear poser nowadays IMO.

Not necessarily.

Balenciaga sells £2.8k Hi-Vis jacket shoppers say 'must be a social experiment'

Shocked consumers can't get over the price of this jacket

www.mylondon.news

 

[Aloysius]

N.b. I did not read the article or watch the video that prompted this; I am simply engaging with our discussion and the prompt.

Something that was a wakeup call for me, and perhaps @Edward who shares many of these interests would agree, is that I realized that I was spending far too much money on workwear. That's not my way of saying that expensive workwear items are bad or something, so let me provide context.

Part of why I got into workwear is that you could put together some really nice workwear looks at a relatively low outlay. And I had this philosophy since I was 16 or so that all clothes I got would take into account my future wardrobe, for minimal wastage. (Ambitious, maybe, but elements of it would pay off.)

So for example, I really enjoyed tailoring but I did not own a suit. Because while I could afford good ties and the like on sale, a suit I could afford would be a throwaway and I did want to own things that would be disposable. (I think the market has gotten much better since then and there are some providers of mid-market suits that aren't the hideous and anti-traditional black worsted monstrosities of the mid-2000s so perhaps if I were a young person today I would approach it differently.)

I could go to RL outlets and pick up RRL and RLPL items on the clearance racks because the general audience was just buying logo-laden t-shirts. And between those and my already well worn Barbour jackets, it was pretty easy to put together excellent casual looks.

But years later I found myself doing this, except at higher price brackets, while still holding out menswear as my preferred clothing. Only I realized that I got to the point that I was spending as much on workwear items as I would have on not only menswear but excellent menswear.

An Aero or Lewis is priced comparably to a sports jacket from an off-Row tailor; Field is priced like a two piece suit from one. The cheaper Japanese brands like a three piece. Himel is in spitting distance of a jacket from a Savile Row tailor.

 

[Albe64]

N.b. I did not read the article or watch the video that prompted this; I am simply engaging with our discussion and the prompt.

Something that was a wakeup call for me, and perhaps @Edward who shares many of these interests would agree, is that I realized that I was spending far too much money on workwear. That's not my way of saying that expensive workwear items are bad or something, so let me provide context.

Part of why I got into workwear is that you could put together some really nice workwear looks at a relatively low outlay. And I had this philosophy since I was 16 or so that all clothes I got would take into account my future wardrobe, for minimal wastage. (Ambitious, maybe, but elements of it would pay off.)

So for example, I really enjoyed tailoring but I did not own a suit. Because while I could afford good ties and the like on sale, a suit I could afford would be a throwaway and I did want to own things that would be disposable. (I think the market has gotten much better since then and there are some providers of mid-market suits that aren't the hideous and anti-traditional black worsted monstrosities of the mid-2000s so perhaps if I were a young person today I would approach it differently.)

I could go to RL outlets and pick up RRL and RLPL items on the clearance racks because the general audience was just buying logo-laden t-shirts. And between those and my already well worn Barbour jackets, it was pretty easy to put together excellent casual looks.

But years later I found myself doing this, except at higher price brackets, while still holding out menswear as my preferred clothing. Only I realized that I got to the point that I was spending as much on workwear items as I would have on not only menswear but excellent menswear.

An Aero or Lewis is priced comparably to a sports jacket from an off-Row tailor; Field is priced like a two piece suit from one. The cheaper Japanese brands like a three piece. Himel is in spitting distance of a jacket from a Savile Row tailor.

Savile Row good tailors usually are between 8.000 and 10.000 euros...I doubt that David Himel has gone so far with his pricelist, as far as I know

 

[Aloysius]

Savile Row good tailors usually are between 8.000 and 10.000 euros...I doubt that David Himel has gone so far with his pricelist, as far as I know

Some of the firms are owned by venture capital or similar holding companies and have put their prices up a great deal as a result. The prices are not that way at the tailor-owned firms like Meyer & Mortimer, Kent & Haste, Steed, Redmayne, etc.

 

[Albe64]

Some of the firms are owned by venture capital or similar holding companies and have put their prices up a great deal as a result. The prices are not that way at the tailor-owned firms like Meyer & Mortimer, Kent & Haste, Steed, Redmayne, etc.

Are you sure about that? I mean, full bespoke tailoring in Europe, from a well known tailor in a main city, do not goes under 6000 euros for a 2 pieces suit. In Naples, if you know the guy, you can find better prices from amazing artisans...but this is not accessible to everybody