SW&D Theory? (CM's Free For All Help Thread)

If you like the workwear aesthetic, you should check out this guys tumblr. He's also a SF member under the same name. IMO he does workwear really well and actually uses it for what it was intended for, but he also does classic CM really well too, showing that you can dip your toes in both worlds pretty seamlessly.

http://urbancomposition.tumblr.com/

I love UC. His mastery of both CM and SWD is what I hope to emulate.

Superb0bo said:

I´ve weirdly enough become much more attracted to European workwear which to my eye is more "intellectual" (ala Margaret Howell and old french stuff) than the denim heavy US style (both modern and vintage). Pretentious as it sounds...

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Me too. If we're talking European, the British workwear tradition in which you could place Howell, is a bit different from the French and others.

Revivalists in this vein include new fairly high-end companies like Nigel Cabourn, Old Town, S.E.H Kelly, slightly more affordable options like Cro'Jack and Universal Works, and rebrands of old producers like Private White V.C., and others who've never gone away like Macintosh, Gloverall and Barbour. Tends to go for (sometimes treated) canvas, cord and twills instead of denim. Less blue and more soft greens and browns. Flat caps not ball caps. That kind of thing. And of course, there are the shoe companies: Grenson, Trickers etc. What I like about British workwear, as you say, is that it shades into the world of heavy tweeds and such like. It's not quite as separate from tailored clothing as the American tradition.

There is a promising thread about this here, started by @ManofKent , who used to be the living embodiment of British workwear revivalism, although he's branched out since then: http://www.styleforum.net/t/220610/british-workwear-heritage-brands - but the thread has not been very active for the last couple of years.

^^Very good points. To me, continental (french and german ) workwear has a similar vibe as the British workwear tradition, both heavily focused on moleskin and heavy cord rather than denim (but obviously less tweed). I discovered some very good german companies myself last year (through Manufactum), especially FHB which still makes some tremendous ,extremely heavy black cord jackets in Germany. Similarly, Le Laboreur and Adolphe Lafont still make some traditional styles in France (for example a fantastic wool jacket by Le Laboreur).

Got so inspired that I had to order a pair of black moleskin pants from Lafont... Unpredictable outcome!

Great conversation. I've learned a lot! Care to post a link to the trousers you got?

All the above posts sort of write around the feeling--I think it's a commonly held one, but that's just been from my observation--that yes, Americana workwear is sort of played out. A lot of the American workwear lifestyle stuff that was novel as it was sold to me in, say, 2009, has been co-opted/exploited or maybe just overexposed to the point that it doesn't feel good to see it anymore, ime. we've moved to Europe for our workwear.

Caustic Man said:

I love UC. His mastery of both CM and SWD is what I hope to emulate.

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The thing about UC is that he works in construction (or at least that's what his blog suggests), and a lot of the stuff (not all) that he wears wouldn't—it seems to me—work for someone outside of his trade. Of course, most of the world don't know and don't care what you do for a living.

Also, I think UC looks great and it's easy to extract from his stuff some of those "principles" you like so much, CM: nothing baggy, everything covering the torso hits around the belt-line (and certainly before the crotch), shirts rolled up to or above the elbows, jackets worn open and rolled out to frame the face, simple uniform patterns and some basic color theory. It helps, too, that he's an athlete's body.

This is an interesting thread