By KEVIN ZEBROSKI
Manual labor is tough on clothes that do not cut it. It is no easy task to work under the hood of a car–serpentine belts and fans–while managing the perilous dangle of a necktie, and the inevitable grease stains, smudging and torsion will eat through oxford cloth like a chainsaw through tofu. This is why we have workwear, the result of necessity meeting ingenuity. Before Carhartt started logo branding sleeves, the clothes one wore to work exuded rugged utility.
Workwear has come into vogue as of late, given the trending nature of raw denim and its innate rigor. Denim started out as overalls built with gold miners in mind, but quickly expanded into the leisure time sector once James Dean made the pants version cool in the 1950s. Double “R” Ralph Lauren or “RRL” has done a bit to popularize the workwear look by incorporating industrialist staples like thick chambrays, rivets and heavy stitching into their clothes. Diesel took several stabs at the workwear niche market with its couture Black Gold line, Japanese denim exporters like Evisu have put out miner-esque overalls emblazoned with remarkably colorful patchwork and some of the classic European design houses like Balmain, Dior and Beltaff have all mailed in their ultra-refined take on the classic formula. The luxurious and ostentatiously priced upper tier, luxury market denim remains something of an oddity, as the very nature of durable clothing connotes an air of dispensability and perhaps abuse, while the financial investment required for ownership invites fussiness. If you buy a denim jacket, you should not be afraid of staining it with elbow grease.
The deliberation and caution that comes about from the ownership of expensive clothing is part of a larger problem. Clothing may be considered art (the Costume Institute at the Met) and there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with proper maintenance, but clothing should be lived in. The damages of daily living contribute to the character of one’s wardrobe. Naturally faded and softened leather is a wonder and the salt spray of a day at the docks lend your sweater a nautical aura that says a bit more than navy striping. Just please do not buy pre-distressed clothes. There is something alien and unsettling about the idea of a machine ripping into your jeans before you have even put them on. Do the damage yourself.
