Men at work

Jocelyn Glei

• Last Updated: April 25. 2009 6:34PM UAE / April 25. 2009 2:34PM GMT

A group of loggers stand outside in Oregon, clothed in the heavy boots, pants and jackets that have been adopted by the fashion world. Stephen Ferry / Liaison

Workwear has been an incipient trend for some seasons and, with inconspicuous consumption the name of the game this season, there’s never been a better time to try it out, says Jocelyn Glei

As shameful shenanigans in Europe and America cause bankers and city folk to lose their shiny-suited lustre, the real man’s man – who can chop logs, make fire, build a kitchen and hunt meat for the pot – is becoming a more appealing role model.

While this may be news to the general public, still adjusting to the end of bling, fashion folk have been building up to it for some time.

Ever since the now-ubiquitous lumberjack print came out of the woodwork a few years ago, American men’s workwear, long a staple of blue-collar workers and outdoorsmen, has been making a comeback with the fashion-forward set. Now, with world economies in crisis, quality, durability and longevity have a new audience, and a handful of workwear-focused menswear brands are poised to capitalise on the trend.

One of the visionaries leading the workwear charge is the New York-based Japanese designer Daiki Suzuki, who has had a keen appreciation of Americana since he was a little boy. After moving to the US in 1989, Suzuki acted as a buyer for high-end shops in Japan, bringing authentic hunting gear, handmade moccasins and other nostalgia-inducing classics into the East’s luxury market. But it wasn’t until 1999 that Suzuki, inspired by his love of the detailing and the “postmodern, deconstructed quality” of American sportswear, launched his own label, Engineered Garments.

With its fresh take on old-school classics, the brand won the inaugural GQ/CFDA award for menswear last year. Taking cues from coal miners, railroad men and construction workers from the early 20th century, his spring/summer collection deals in robust seersucker jackets, prison stripes and linen. It includes four-pocket vests and shorts, three-piece Sunday suits and rolled-up redneck khakis in greens, browns and stone shades.

Suzuki was also tapped by the classic Pennsylvania-based clothier Woolrich to resurrect its Woolrich Woolen Mills brand, originally founded in 1830. The company even invited him to dig into its historical garment archives as a jumping-off point. The line, launched in 2006, took off at London Fashion Week two seasons ago, when journalists and bloggers noted his fresh interpretations of classic workwear, which included slouchy blazers with deep, gusseted pockets and elbow patches, four-pocket plaid railroad vests and knit herringbone-patterned watch caps.

“There is an undercurrent to pre-war production that makes it feel warm and natural,” Suzuki says. “Things were made organically and that really shows up in the garments. Things were not mass-produced. Details were done for practicality and the materials used were all natural. Nothing was really forced or contrived.” In short, workwear today embodies the best of both worlds: it’s pragmatic and romantic.

Suzuki’s Engineered Garments collection was recently curated into Den, a New York shop that highlights a rotating roster of brands and is operated by the proprietors of the cutting-edge menswear boutique Odin, located next door. For the EG installation, the space was transformed into a dry goods shop from a bygone era. Lesser known American brands such as JW Hulme, a manufacturer of leather and canvas luggage, and Faribault Mills, which makes blankets for the US military, were also on hand.

“The goods are not meant to be fashionable but rather contain a style that’s very classic and utilitarian: real clothes and real accessories for real people,” says Den’s co-owner Edward Chai.

Even in Dubai, the land of designer obsessions, a certain amount of workwear is coming through, though usually in the guise of high-end denim or D&G plaid. Javier Prieto, the menswear buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai, admits that the look is not a huge part of the Saks collection, but that there is nevertheless a slowly increasing demand.

“We have been buying deeper in the denim area, with the more rich kinds of denim – very high-quality, dark, classic denim. We have some that feature stressed washes and we do quite well with that,” he says.

“John Varvatos is a key designer for this look. He’s done some shoes that look second-hand, and people here will make a nice mix of a pair of D&G jeans and a John Varvatos washed-out shirt. In Dubai, people like to make a statement, so the more rock-and-roll style of a brand such as Chrome Hearts – very West-Coast America silver jewellery, like daggers – or the jeans brand Royalty make more of an impact. But as men become more educated in fashion, the American brands are starting to increase.”

Ryan Willms, the creative director of the men’s fashion publication www.hyrcollective.com, stresses the importance of utility and style: “Workwear is really quite diverse and can be worn a lot of different ways. I suppose part of the appeal is that I can wear relatively similar pieces to a guy working construction or in an office but do it with my personal touch. The look is also comfortable and affordable – denim, cotton, canvas and some leather. Nothing too crazy, nothing too out there, that’s the idea.”

In addition to the ease with which he can wear it, Willms says workwear is appealing because it’s possible to buy a classic piece “that’s essentially been the same for the last 10 years”. Because of workwear brands’ inherent focus on utilitarian concerns, the style naturally taps into some of the tenets of the slow fashion movement. The designs for various clothing items change little over the years and items from the past can easily be mixed and matched with new purchases.

It makes sense, then, that the steady resurgence of men’s workwear is not limited to new brands that pay homage to classic styles. A number of long-standing American brands are experiencing a renaissance, including The Stronghold. Originally started in 1895 in Los Angeles as a denim manufacturer, The Stronghold shut down in 1949. But in 2004, Michael Paradise and Michael Cassel relaunched the label, offering off-the-rack and made-to-measure denim trousers just like the brand did in the old days. The jeans are carried in high-end retail outlets such as Jeffreys and Bergdorf Goodman, but the heart and soul of the label is its shop in the seaside neighborhood of Venice, California.

Sticking to the company’s original ideals, The Stronghold only stocks brands that live up to its own high standards of quality in American workwear manufacturing. The shop supplements its denim selection with products from classic brands, all founded prior to the Second World War: boots from the Spokane, Washington-based company White’s, founded in 1915; handmade leather shoes from Wisconsin’s Russell Moccasin Company, operating since 1898; and canvas and leather bags from the rugged outdoor manufacturer Filson, which got its start in 1897 during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Entering the store feels like traveling back in time. Employees wear crisply cuffed stovepipe hats, and bolts of denim and vintage pocket watches hang on the wall. The overall atmosphere is one of a simpler time, and that’s exactly the way Paradise likes it. For him, the great appeal of workwear is its “uncomplicated” nature.

“I wear authentic workwear because it is simple, comfortable, rugged, a great value, has classic style and is not a product of ‘fashion’ design,” he says. “And most importantly, I like the way I look in it.”

Smaller shops like The Stronghold and Den aren’t the only ones looking to classic workwear brands to set the tone for a new, more durable era in men’s fashion. The classic American prepwear brand J Crew is getting in on the action with its new men’s store in New York’s Tribeca that offers a sort of mash-up of the label’s standard conservative-classic aesthetic and the more rugged workwear look.

The shopfront is artfully unbranded. Inside, vintage books and records dot the shelves while decorative bottles and copies of the Americana-obsessed Japanese magazine Free & Easy sit beside the cash register next to an array of sweaters and aged denim. Mixing old and new notions of workwear, the store’s selection includes co-branded Mackintosh coats and Thomas Mason shirts, alongside more rough-hewn classics such as special-edition Red Wing boots.

Red Wings have been one of JCrew’s top sellers over the last couple of years, and the highly successful collaboration is still going strong. But if J Crew is getting on the workwear bandwagon, Red Wing, founded in 1905 in Minnesota, is one of the brands that built the it. The century-old label has surged in popularity over the past few years.

“People are grabbing onto American cool, classic styling and are looking for brands with meaning and authentic stories,” says Jenny Tauer, the manager of Global Lifestyle Marketing.

Indeed, the true appeal of workwear right now may be its aura of trusted authenticity, a quality even more alluring than its pragmatic combination of form and function. As Den’s Edward Chai says, “I think that with the flashiness of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the decline of the economy, the American workwear aesthetic gives people a sense of empowerment and a sense of comfort. It calls upon a time of perseverance and strength.”