Why we love to dress for the job we don’t have

You’re a copywriter, a communications manager, an elusive creative director with indeterminate responsibilities. So why are you dressed liked a 20th century French rail worker?

Today, some 70 million employed Americans will probably work from behind a desk. Yet our obsession with clothes from a different kind of working life just won’t quit.

Between 1910 and 2000, blue-collar jobs such as mining, construction and manufacturing shrunk from 76% of the US workforce to 25%. Still, the workman image reverberates ad infinitum through the chore jackets, cargo pants and heavy-duty boots stocked in metropolitan shops, designer showrooms or spotted on the streets of fashion capitals like London, Paris and New York.

The term “workwear” probably includes more clothing than you think, too. In his upcoming book, “Blue Collar Modernism,” menswear editor David Hellqvist gives a potted history of fashion’s biggest labels and their connection to occupation. Jeans, the bedrock of contemporary dressing, have their roots in the Californian mining industry of the 19th century. Even the small copper rivets that bookend our jean pockets, a feature so ubiquitous in modern denim it mostly goes unnoticed, were designed to reinforce the seams against ripping and keep the garment hard-wearing. The technology was patented as early as 1873. Elsewhere, Dr Martens were derived from a military boot, while Barbour’s well-to-do waxed jackets were first created as oil-skin outwear for fishermen and sailors in 1894.

Gustav Cavallin/Blue-Collar Modernism/gestalten

Utilitarian work clothes first left the factory floor in the early 20th century. Artists were an early group of adopters who helped recontextualize coveralls, jeans and chore coats, according to fashion historian Sonya Abrego. “Looking back, it can seem kind of edgy and cool and fashionable to us,” said Abrego, author of the 2022 book, “Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture,” in a phone call. “But they were really trying to make an anti-fashion statement.” Not to mention the fact these artists were still working people, completing a physical task that required some level of functional dress. Abrego points to a photograph of Jackson Pollock taken in his studio in 1949 for Life Magazine , kneeling on an enormous canvas dripping paint from a brush. “It’s all about the movement around the canvas,” she said. “And he’s got on jeans and a chore coat, it just goes together.”

The Second World War helped globalize the working man’s garb further. Many of the American soldiers fighting overseas wore denim, often provided by Levi’s. The brand was recognized by the War Production Board and even had their costs set by the Office of Price Administration. When the war ended, Europe seemed besotted with this new, all-American textile — which had been catapulted into pop culture with films like “Streetcar Named Desire” (1952) and “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955). In fact, so enamored were the youth of Europe that in 1959 the New York Times reported a teenager in East Berlin was arrested for buying blue jeans in the city’s Western enclave. His sentence was two months, to “serve as a warning” to others hoping to try on this new democratic style for size.

Charlie Chich/Blue-Collar Modernism/gestalten

Almost 70 years later, workwear is one of fashion’s most enduring love stories. But why? These clothes are infused with a sense of nostalgia and reflect a quality of craftsmanship largely absent from affordable clothing today, thinks Abrego. “The connection to labor speaks pretty strongly,” too, she said. Maybe people are honouring a family history of trade, despite not working in these jobs themselves today. The draw is particularly strong for men’s fashion. “We’ve always looked to these kinds of professions for inspiration,” said Hellqvist. “Many of us aspire to be those kinds of men, who can fix things and do things. I know I certainly can’t, but I can pretend to be that guy.”

With his book, Hellqvist set out to broaden the definition of workwear beyond the obvious legacy brands of Levi’s and Carhartt. “It’s not like miners in the gold rush anymore,” he said, “it’s office workers in the city.” Instead, Hellqvist covers the subculture’s history with a light touch and zooms out into a curated, highly shoppable list of labels he believes are pushing forward this style of dress in new ways. On his radar are Japanese brand Auralee (platformed by Lyst this summer as a rising star in data from the latest menswear shows); Fera, a British farmcore brand specializing in understated quilted vests and re-worked cotton Harrington jackets and Mfpen, a Copenhagen-based brand making relaxed tailored suits from deadstock fabric.

Most of the designers included are, however, simply “inspired” by workwear, said Hellqvist. These next generation brands emulate the look of workaday garments without the purpose of a trade in mind or a “problem” to solve through clothing. But “the way they choose fabrics and the way they think about clothing in terms of functionality” keeps them in the lineage of predecessors like Dickies, Ben Davis and Vetra, he said.

Clément Breton/Blue-Collar Modernism/gestalten

One contemporary brand keeping traditional job-driven design alive is Service Works, a London-based chefs-wear label founded by Tom Chudley in 2020. After more than a decade working in restaurants, Chudley told Hellqvist he became sick of the “plastic poly-cotton” that was “rubbing up and down my legs for 10 hours a day.” His clothing line makes traditional chefs pants in cotton canvas, aprons, chore coats rebranded as “Trade Jackets,” shirts, T-shirts as well as cotton double pleated trousers that can be worn by waiters and other catering staff. These garments are the defacto uniforms of London’s small plates scene, but they also have a fashion following from those outside the industry and are sold at retailers like End and Nordstrom.

Marcus Patrick Brown/Blue-Collar Modernism/gestalten

There is, of course, something ironic and even ahistorical about wearing blue collar clothes in a white collar world. There are those who balk at “people who pay a great deal of money to wear something that was worn by a sharecropper to sit at a desk all day,” said Abrego. Though personally, she doesn’t find it “that much more off-putting or hypocritical than anything else.”

“I don’t really think there’s an authentic, real or true way to dress or present oneself,” she said. “If you want to wear cowboy boots and you don’t live in the West – go for it.”

你既是文案撰稿人，又是公关经理，还是一位行踪飘忽、职责不明的创意总监。那么，你为什么穿得像个20世纪的法国铁路工人？

如今，大约有7000万美国人可能要在办公桌前工作。然而，我们对过去那种职业装的迷恋却丝毫没有减退。

从 1910 年到 2000 年，采矿、建筑和制造业等蓝领工作在美国劳动力中所占比例从 76% 下降到 25%。尽管如此，工人的形象仍然通过工装夹克、工装裤和厚重的靴子不断回响，这些服装出现在大都市的商店、设计师展厅，或者出现在伦敦、巴黎和纽约等时尚之都的街头。

“工装”一词涵盖的服装种类可能比你想象的要多。在即将出版的《蓝领现代主义》一书中，男装编辑大卫·赫尔奎斯特简要介绍了时尚界各大品牌的历史及其与职业的联系。牛仔裤作为现代着装的基石，其起源可以追溯到19世纪加州的采矿业。就连牛仔裤口袋两侧的小铜铆钉——这种现代牛仔布上常见的细节以至于人们常常忽略——最初的设计目的也是为了加固接缝，防止撕裂，从而提高服装的耐穿性。这项技术早在1873年就获得了专利。此外，马丁靴源自军靴，而巴伯的高档蜡面夹克最初是1894年为渔民和水手设计的油布外套。

古斯塔夫·卡瓦林/蓝领现代主义/格式塔

实用工作服在20世纪初首次走出工厂车间。据时尚史学家索尼娅·阿布雷戈（Sonya Abrego）称，艺术家们是最早一批采用这种服装的群体，他们重新诠释了连体工作服、牛仔裤和工装外套的意义。“回过头来看，这些服装在我们看来可能有点前卫、酷炫、时​​尚，”阿布雷戈在电话中说道。她是2022年出版的《西部服饰：战后美国时尚与文化》（Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture）一书的作者。“但他们当时其实是在表达一种反时尚的立场。”更何况，这些艺术家本身也是劳动者，他们从事的体力劳动需要穿着一定程度的功能性服装。阿布雷戈举了一张杰克逊·波洛克（Jackson Pollock）1949年为《生活》杂志拍摄的照片，照片中他跪在一块巨大的画布上，画笔上的颜料滴落下来。“关键在于围绕画布的动态感，”她说。“他穿着牛仔裤和工装外套，这身搭配恰到好处。”

第二次世界大战进一步推动了工人服装的全球化。许多在海外作战的美国士兵穿着牛仔服，其中很多都是李维斯（Levi's）提供的。李维斯品牌得到了战时生产委员会的认可，其价格甚至由物价管理局统一制定。战争结束后，欧洲似乎对这种全新的、完全美国制造的纺织品着迷不已——它凭借《欲望号街车》（1952）和《无因的反叛》（1955）等电影迅速进入流行文化。事实上，欧洲的年轻人对牛仔服的喜爱程度如此之高，以至于1959年《纽约时报》报道，一名东柏林青少年因在西柏林购买牛仔裤而被捕。他被判处两个月监禁，以“警示”其他想要尝试这种新兴民主时尚的人。

查理·奇奇/蓝领现代主义/gestalten

近70年后，工装依然是时尚界经久不衰的经典元素之一。但这是为什么呢？阿布雷戈认为，这些服装蕴含着一种怀旧情怀，并体现了一种如今平价服装中鲜少见到的精湛工艺。“它与劳动之间的联系也十分紧密，”她补充道。或许人们是在缅怀家族的技艺传承，即便他们如今已不再从事这些工作。这种魅力在男装领域尤为突出。“我们一直以来都从这类职业中汲取灵感，”赫尔奎斯特说道。“我们中的许多人都渴望成为那样的人，能够修理东西，能够做事。我知道我肯定做不到，但我可以假装自己是那样的人。”

赫尔奎斯特在他的书中旨在拓展工装的定义，使其不再局限于李维斯和卡哈特这些耳熟能详的传统品牌。“它不再像淘金热时期的矿工那样了，”他说，“而是城市里的上班族。”赫尔奎斯特以轻松的笔触回顾了这种亚文化的历史，并着重介绍了一系列他认为正在以全新方式推动这种着装风格的品牌，这些品牌都极具购买价值。他关注的品牌包括：日本品牌Auralee（今年夏天，Lyst根据最新男装秀的数据将其评为冉冉升起的新星）；英国农家风品牌Fera，专注于低调的绗缝背心和改良棉质哈灵顿夹克；以及总部位于哥本哈根的品牌Mfpen，该品牌利用库存面料制作休闲剪裁的西装。

赫尔奎斯特表示，大多数入选的设计师只是从工装中汲取了“灵感”。这些新一代品牌模仿日常工作服的外观，但并不以某种职业用途或通过服装解决“问题”为目标。但他指出，“他们选择面料的方式以及他们对服装功能性的思考方式”使他们与迪克斯、本·戴维斯和维特拉等前辈品牌一脉相承。

克莱门特·布列塔尼/蓝领现代主义/格式塔

Service Works 是一个当代品牌，它延续了传统的职业导向型设计理念。这个总部位于伦敦的厨师服品牌由 Tom Chudley 于 2020 年创立。在餐厅工作十余年后，Chudley 告诉 Hellqvist，他厌倦了“塑料涤棉混纺”的面料，每天“摩擦我的双腿长达 10 个小时”。他的服装系列包括传统的棉帆布厨师裤、围裙、重新命名为“Trade Jackets”的工装外套、衬衫、T 恤，以及可供服务员和其他餐饮人员穿着的棉质双褶裤。这些服装已成为伦敦小食餐厅的标配制服，同时也吸引了众多行业外人士的时尚追捧，并在 End 和 Nordstrom 等零售商处有售。

马库斯·帕特里克·布朗/蓝领现代主义/gestalten

当然，在白领世界里穿蓝领服装，确实有点讽刺意味，甚至有点不符合历史。阿布雷戈说，有些人会反感“花大价钱穿佃农过去坐在办公桌前穿的衣服”。不过就她个人而言，她并不觉得这“比其他任何事情更令人反感或虚伪”。

“我并不认为穿衣打扮或展现自我有什么真正意义上的、真实的或正确的方式，”她说。“如果你想穿牛仔靴，即使你不住在西部——那就穿吧。”