Functionality hand in hand with aesthetics

Workwear has long been intertwined with fashion, ever since someone decided to wear camouflage off the battlefield. Then, in the 40s, Rosie the Riveter got greasy in her blue overalls and red bandana and made it look incredibly cool. Over the years, workwear has been key iconography for various subcultures: Punks wore combat boots in the 80s. In the 90s, hip-hop artists wore overalls and Timberlands. The 2000s saw skaters come onto the scene in rugged, slip-proof Dickies trousers. These days, subcultures don’t dictate fashion trends to the degree they used to. And yet, workwear on the youth fashion circuit is more widespread than ever. Dickies and Carhartt are sold in shopping centres and influencers are dipping into army surplus stores.

At its Spring/Summer 2022 show, Coach had a gang of skateboarding kids ride down its runway dressed in baggy denim. In 2018, Raf Simons walked in bomber jackets down the Calvin Klein runway. The same year, Opening Ceremony began an ongoing collaboration with Dickies. Over the past few years, both Frank Ocean and Kanye West have committed to donning workwear on the Met Gala carpet, provided by Dickies and Prada. The primary purpose of workwear, however, is to be functional. Designer clothing, on the other hand, is regularly mixed and matched beyond the point of utility. Designer workwear is reinvented to serve not the working class, but the leisure class, which values aesthetics above all else.

There are plenty of reasons to love classic workwear. If you get it from the source — that is, brands that supply uniforms to actual blue-collar workers — the garments are often affordable, durable, and easily serve as wardrobe staples. Workwear silhouettes are boxy, even baggy. They serve the current fascination with androgynous, gender-exploratory fashion. The inclusion of workwear in the wardrobe also rebels against the sometimes-dominant attitude of high fashion.

There is a double reality in which celebrities put on their work clothes to go out at night in front of flashes of photographers, while at the same time, workers head home after a long day to remove those same layers, now covered in sweat and grime. American fashion reflects the culture in which it was born. One reminisces the iconic images of the country depicting workers eating lunch on high beams, putting out fires in big red trucks, and breaking up the earth in yellow hard hats.

I am wearing a vintage boiler suit in vivid red colour with patches and logos from a still existing German workwear company. It is a very comfortable garment that allows you to adjust it on your waist and sleeves, so it fits neatly on your body giving everyone a sharp shape. Matching it with a light blue turtleneck and a classic, denim shirt. I am combining this with all-white Dr. Martens in contrast with navy polka-dot socks and a matching cross-body bag with details in green. The navy, vintage jacket is one of my favourite pieces featuring a pinstripe print, bulky and padded shoulders making it timeless, stylish and warm. The navy, leather gloves is the final touch to complete the look with the jacket and the classic Wayfarer sunglasses complimenting it accessory-wise.