San Francisco Chronicle: Workwear Comeback

I read this article earlier today and found myself yearning for leisure wear. I'm hoping this work wear trend plays itself out quickly. Maybe after the recession is behind us these same people will be embracing The Return to Opulence.

Have we already forgotten the Carhartt barn coats. neon orange hoodies and painter pants popular in the early '90s?

It's not really confined to San Francisco... And yeah, +1 to hoping it plays out sooner. One of the most obnoxious things I've ever read was this T Magazine blog post about the most stylish movies of the 00s, which credited Brokeback Mountain for starting the workwear trend:

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2...in-film-style/

"A staple at every retailer from J Crew to JCPenney, the chambray shirt is something that many men just can't quit."

welcome to 2008

Of course it will last, workwear is by definition clothing needed for work….unless everyone stops I’m guessing it’ll still have a presence

Nice reasoning there. And lounge suits, of course, are by definition meant to lounge around in.

Yes. But web designers and other soft-palmed types have no real
need for durable heavy work wear originally designed for miners,
dock workers, foundrymen, etc. This is an affectation and a grasp for
a macho image. When I was in college during the height of the Ivy Style,
the leftists and the folk singers usually wore cambray work shorts or
pendletons to identify with Woody Guthrie's proletariat. It was the same
phenomenon, but more politically overt.

 

you meant suit and tie?