Add this to the list of reasons that I think everyone should be required to have at least one job in their life where your day begins by being handed a shovel.
There would be a lot more class harmony and a lot fewer stupid hipsters doing insulting things to people who work for a living if that were the case. Work for a living for one summer. It’s all I ask. Get some goddam perspective before you go off to a life of tech company jobs.
Can I swap it out for an ax?
Anyone who has ever had to dig a hole knows that the TV and movies LIE about how easy it. Especially in Kansas where in parts you can get down about a foot and then it is a clay and it ssuuucckkkksss…
That’s a top peeve of mine also (right next to obviously empty coffee cups). Characters are constantly digging graves in any ground anywhere in a short amount of time, usually without breaking a sweat. Somehow they never hit a root or a big rock or otherwise have any trouble at all, generally knocking it out in 20 minutes. A whole lot of Hollywood writers have never dug a hole in their lives, that’s for sure.
Yes please.
I wear Carhartt gear at work. It is really comfy once it gets broken in. And it is durable. My old uniforms end up being used as “chore wear” around the house.
Make it in caliche for that extra character and callous building experience.
As a bluecollar worker, I think I could buy these ones too, if I could afford it…
Yes!
I got a full “plasterer’s uniform” when I was learning traditional plastering in Osaka, Japan. It was those pants, and an amazing jacket with quilted edges, fitted core, zipped sleeves (so you don’t need to roll them up, but don’t slip them into the slop), and strategic pockets. Best work suit ever! So ergonomic, and, to my blue-collar aesthetic, so fashionable. I wish I’d bought 3.
The pants, especially, are perfect for stuff where you need to stand and bend or crouch repeatedly. OMG, the knee room.
You get down a foot?!?
Lucky if you get down 3 inches around here! (New England rock farmer speaking.) 
Have you noticed a difference recently? Ours have been wearing out faster than usual in, I’d say, the past 5 to 10 years. Like, just wearing out around the pockets, knees, crotch areas. They used to seem to last forever but now it’s a year or two, tops, if you’re actually working in them. (I’m in the US, in case markets might vary.)
Not to mention the little black dress, the servant’s uniform of yore.
U.S. also. Haven’t had a pair wear out yet, but that’s because they either get oil saturated (trashed) or I catch them on something and tear a hole in them. (Can’t wear torn FR gear at work).
Mine get mangled from putting the tape measure on and off, to name one thing.
What’s FR stand for?
I sort of get it - I got really interested in picking up a set of samue for wearing around the house and general work - Samue - Wikiwand but it felt like a bridge too far in terms of looking out of sorts/etc. I appreciate straightforward utilitarian clothing, and liked the aesthetic as well.
Fire (or Flame) Resistant. Can’t have any holes or frayed areas. If it does, we can’t use them at work any more.
I did archaeological digs for a couple of summers, which required hard hats on some sites, and all them required steel toed boots, and did we ever get the side-eye if we went to a nice restaurant for lunch in our construction worker chic.
It’s always been the case that the cost of workwear here (Ireland, maybe Europe) depends on where you buy it. Stores that specialise in work wear are always cheaper (generally much cheaper) than fashionable stores.
Personally, I favour steel-toe Dr. Martens (because I generally work indoors) and although they have become very expensive recently, they are still cheaper than their non-steel toed cousins. I bought a pair of regular, fashionable Docs a while back and they aren’t built to the same standard despite being twice the price.
Great idea. Perhaps akin to mandatory service but in manual labour rather than military. Learn how to get stuff done. My kids’ school had a service requirement that was a shocking experience for many privileged students.
That said, the fashion trend might be nostalgia for what folks heard about from their parents’ and grandparents’ work experience. Farm and factory work, typesetting, construction, Rosie the Riveter. And the requisite durable garments that those jobs required.
I just finished a career in office work and want nothing more than to chop firewood all day. That yearning for “simple” times must underlie this trend. Hold the desperation and TB please.
And they only ever use a shovel, never a spade or a pickaxe…
In my life digging holes, the pickaxe was my best friend. Or rather the hoe/axe hybrid.
Absolutely. I think two trends have to be separated here. They’re not separated in the original BB article either, which makes it a bit disjointed. The chore jacket trend (which has been going on for ages in men’s fashion now, it’s hardly new) is about nostalgia, as you describe.
There’s also the trend to wear modern, current work wear (like carhartt or Timberland boots), which is what the expert worried about appropriation is talking about in the article. This has nothing to do with the other trend and is more about people seeking actually hard-wearing clothing for little money in a world where that doesn’t exist anymore. Many of these people are actually manual workers themselves or their families, who bring clothing choices from their or their family members’ jobs into their private lives.
