My recent post about
S.E.H Kelly's workwear jacket got me thinking. Workwear has become incredibly fashionable of late, being used by labels like
Engineered Garments and
Woolrich Woolen Mills as the basis of their collections. But what about real workwear, as worn on building sites and in tool shops, used day in and day out by carpenters, train drivers and engineers? This stuff's bound to be dirt cheap I thought, but could it be a cool thing to wear? I started looking at some online catalogues - here's what a quick trawl of some workwear websites turned up:
First up is a 100% cotton twill engineers jacket and trousers (above) from
Yarmo priced at £19.05 and £18.40 respectively. Not bad I thought, a nice shade of navy and not a million miles away from something
Universal Works might have in one of their collections. The three button jacket has nice narrow lapels and the trews look reasonably slim. Team this up with a nice gingham check shirt and pull on some Jack Purcells and this ensemble could work I reckon. I did think they could have chosen a better model for their catalogue though.
Then there's a truly American piece of workwear, this Chore Coat from
Pointer at £23.50 available in brown duck or denim. I liked this a lot, and could see myself not only wearing this, but paying four times the price for it at a fancy shop in Soho.
Next there's some combat pants from
A.S. Elite workwear. These look good too, and cost just £12.45. The website doesn't say what they're made from (I'm guessing polycotton), but at this price, who cares?
Finally the
Portwest Engineer's jacket. A nice simple design in 100% cotton, and a classic blue colour, almost like the Kelly jacket. Swap the daft shirt and tie for something by Olly Spencer and dump the pen, and this could look the business. The price tag looks good too at just £21.
So that's it. Not a bad selection and really cheap. If you get them home and find they aren't quite as cool as you expected, you could always wear them to fix the car or do the gardening in. And I'm quite sure if you trawl the net harder, you'll find better stuff that this. If you do, please send your recommendations my way.
One of the great things about being registered for the Workers newsletter is seeing their latest designs pop up. This month, Takashi Tateno's creations have a definite Casey Jones flavour about them - striped railroad jackets, robust looking overalls and engineer's shirts, and to top it all off, a striped railwayman's cap. From what I've seen so far, Takashi takes his designs very seriously, and no doubt these latest garments will have been the result of some thorough research into minutiae of vintage railroaders' workwear. Even if his customers are more likely to be wearing them on the Tokaido Shinkansen than the Cannonball Express.
