Die, Workwear!

For being about clothes, online sites about men’s style can get surprisingly contentious. Just visit any online forum or check the comment section at Ivy Style. People outside of fashion tend to have a healthy sense of humor when it comes to dress, but enthusiasts – particularly ones with more classic sensibilities – can work themselves into a rage. Bruce Boyer put it well when he said some people treat this as though it were a bloodsport. 

When you boil them down, arguments over clothes always come back to the same things. If it’s a runway show, someone will comment on how the clothes look odd. If it’s about bespoke, someone will ask what’s the point of all that handwork. If it’s someone new to dressing well, they’re sure to complain about prices (OK, that one is fair). 

The thing is, these critiques are rarely about the clothes themselves; they’re about the person’s values. A lot of the arguments are really about how different people value clothing differently. If you take the time to consider another person’s set of values, you’ll have your answer to almost any question – “who would wear such a thing in real life?” or “is bespoke worth it?”

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It would be too much to say that the suit is dead, but here in San Francisco, you’d struggle to find occasions to wear one. More and more people nowadays are dressing down for the office, even in industries where client-facing interactions have historically required more professional wear. My prediction is, in another generation or so, dark suits will only live on through weddings and funerals – the last places for traditional clothing in any society. 

My solution so far has been to rely on sport coats, or at least informal suits made from casual materials (e.g. cotton, linen, and corduroy – which, if I were to be honest, are mostly worn as suit separates). Even if a dark suit today is a rare sight, few people bat an eye at more casual forms of tailoring. You can wear a sport coat to a nice bar or restaurant, or depending on where you work, even the office. 

The problem is that none of those options really look as good as a traditional two-piece, so this year I’m hoping to get what I call an “in-between” suit – something smarter than a sport coat, but more casual than traditional business dress. Bold, patterned flannel is nice for this sort of thing, but I’m hoping to start off with wool gabardine. 

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I really want to go to Italy this year to commission some things from a few tailors. There’s been a lot of talk lately about how bespoke tailoring is on the decline – things aren’t as good as they were a generation ago and tailoring shops are slowly being converted into ready-to-wear brands. There’s a kernel of truth in that, but there’s also a lot of new talent in the trade and inspiring work being done. I’m not as down on traditional crafts as some of my friends. 

It is true, however, that the older generation is starting to retire, especially in Italy. And when they go, they’ll take with them their sense of style. Not that the younger generation is bad – the two are just different. The older generation is more inspired by 1950s fashion, while the younger generation makes things a bit flashier and, at times, more form fitting (with exceptions). I like both, but there’s something special to me about that older generation look. 

I thought about this other day as I was looking through these photos of Kentaro Nakagomi, owner of the new outerwear label Coherence. Kentaro gets some of his things from Loris Vestrucci, an older Florentine tailor who was a legend of his time, but is rarely talked about online. Unfortunately, Vestrucci is semi-retired now. He’ll still make things for some of his clients, but he won’t take new customers. Trust me, I tried. 

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These boots have been sitting in my closet for a while. I bought them a couple of years ago when I was getting into heavy horsehide jackets and flannel shirts. These days, when I’m not in sport coats, I’m usually wearing more contemporary takes on casualwear – or off-beat riffs on classics – but when it was raining heavily last week, I broke out my engineer boots again.

Much like the five-pocket jean and oxford shirt, the engineer boot is an American classic. A Heddels writer once described them as having the ruggedness of Pacific Northwest logging footwear, but the simplicity of English riding boots, which sounds about right. Engineer boots are defined by their tall, stove-pipe shaft and roller-buckle ankle strap (often accompanied by a similar strap around the calf). The style was originally worn by railmen – particularly those who shoveled hot coals into engines – because they offered protection from sharp shovels and fiery embers.

Like a lot of workwear, engineer boots became popular as everyday, casual garb around the 1950s, when more rugged styles were adopted by youths and returning veterans seeking to carve out new identities (ones that defined them as separate from the flannel-suit-wearing elites). Members of motorcycle clubs first started wearing them as part of their double-rider uniform, as the smooth design ensured that no shoestrings would get caught in their bikes. Later, Marlon Brando and James Dean helped spread this look through their various movie roles, which is what made them popular with youths. By the end of the decade, engineer boots carried a sort of bad-ass connotation that has stayed with them to this day.

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What to wear when this winter has been unusually cold? I recently got back from a trip to Vancouver, and while the weather wasn’t that much cooler than evenings in San Francisco, my family and I took a trip up to Whistler – one of the local ski resort towns. Here in the Bay, I can usually get by with a thick cashmere sweater, tweed sport coat, and some kind of outerwear (although this year, I’ve been pining for some heavier dress coats given the falling temps). In Whistler, things were downright freezing.

There ought to be a saying about how 90% of your body heat escapes from your neck, because a chunky turtleneck sweater is one of the warmest things you can own. So warm that you may find yourself uncomfortable indoors, depending on the heating. I wore the one above from Asprey, which is no longer available, but you can find similar pieces this season from Scott & Charters, Inis Meain, Orvis, Thomas Maier, and Montgomery.

Thick turtlenecks are often too warm to layer over anything but t-shirts, but I like baselayers for my legs. I find tailored trousers don’t wear that much warmer than mid-weight denim, and I prefer the latter when the weather is particularly nasty (if only because I don’t have to fuss over jeans). Smartwool’s 250 baselayers are nice. Being made from pure merino wool, they’re more delicate than wool blends and synthetics, but also more insulating. 

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It’s amazing how much of our wardrobe comes from the military. Every other person you see nowadays is dressed to kill. Men in cafes wearing Melton wool pea coats and heavy leather bombers; women in Army green field jackets; and businessmen with large, cotton gabardine trench coats thrown over their suits. Even seemingly innocuous items have their roots in war. Chinos, for example, were originally worn by British and French servicemen in the 19th century. Today, they’re just standard issue for cubicle farmers. 

One military style I’ve been into lately is the jeep coat – a short, double breasted design that American soldiers once wore during the Second World War. Some look like they’re little more than olive colored versions of naval pea coats, but I favor the more dramatic styles with shawl collars (see an example above). 

Since fashion is all about repurposing design, you have to go back to the turn of the 20th century to really understand jeep coats. Back then, fur traders and loggers in the Pacific Northwest would wear blanket coats – called so because they were made from the garishly patterned, brightly colored blankets. The coats were double breasted in order to keep the wearer warm, but also cut short to allow for easy movement. These were work clothes, after all, even if the style would later spread throughout the US – first as souvenir gifts, then as fashion items, and finally as military garb. 

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Gloves aren’t just a style statement this time of year; they’re a practical necessity if you live someplace cold. I’m in Canada at the moment, visiting family, and can’t even leave the house without a pair already on. Plus, check out Luciano Barbera’s beautifully aged gloves pictured above – old and richly patina’d from years of use. Such gracefully aged gloves can be a nice way to add interest to a winter ensemble. 

If you can only own one pair, get them in dark brown. Something made from a soft and supple Nappa leather will be versatile enough to go with almost anything. You’ll also want to get them wool-lined, if not at least cashmere-lined. Unlined gloves fit closer to the hand, but you’ll appreciate the added warmth of wool-lined gloves when temperatures drop below forty. 

If you have room for more than one pair, however, I think it’s nice to get some that go with certain outfits. Think about the material, stitching, lining, and even silhouette (yes, gloves have silhouettes). A rundown of what I find particularly useful for my wardrobe:

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Winter clothes for me is all about the materials. The soft hand of woolen flannel; the sturdiness of tweed. Waxed cotton can be a good way of keeping rain off your back, although bonded cotton can sometimes drape in more interesting ways. A plush alpaca blend sweater can also be a good alternative to cashmere, even if it sheds a little. The trick is finding something thick enough.

For the last year or so, I’ve been wanting to get a shearling jacket. Shearling being a kind of sheepskin, particularly from lamb, that has been cured so that the fleece remains attached to the leather (when the hide is taken from merino sheep, you have mouton).

Granted, shearling hasn’t had the best history. Not too long ago, the mere mention of it evoked ideas of the Marlboro Man. Those long, bulky, no-nonsense coats with patchwork-like seams running up the back and tufts of wool peeking out from beneath the cuffs. The silhouettes were blocky and the leathers were often dry and cracked, leaving the wearer looking vaguely like King Kong. As ranch coats and bomber jackets, shearlings carry a sort of rugged, workwear sensibility.

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Every December brings with it a new crop of “year in review” stories. The best one for fashion this year is probably this piece by Vanessa Friedman, who recently penned something on the biggest headlines of 2016. If you’re interested in the fashion industry as a broader topic, it’s a great read. 

When I look back at 2016, however, the story that sticks out in my mind wasn’t even written this year. It was something Cathy Horyn wrote for T Magazine the year prior. In it, she suggests we may be entering a “post-trend universe.” That is, whereas fashion used to be cyclical – going from skinny jeans to baggy, then back to skinny again – it’s now possible for many styles to coexist. As she put it, “there is no single trend that demands our attention, much less our allegiance, as so many options are available to us at once.” 

Horyn’s article was about women’s fashion – tracking things from “the hobble skirt of the 1910s, a Paris invention that spread to small cities and was ultimately sold by Sears, to Dior’s radical New Look of 1947, to the ‘60s miniskirt” – but it may as well have been about men’s style. 

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End-of-season sales can be a great time to nab something nice, but there are so many good stores nowadays that it can feel overwhelming to sort through everyone’s inventory. Since there are dozens of winter sales going on right now, I thought I’d round up some of my favorites. Most notable are megastores such as Mr. Porter and End, both of which start their promotions today, but there are also tons of great deals at smaller boutiques. 

Mr. Porter: Mr. Porter is always the highlight of every sale season. Discounts tend to start around 30% to 50% off, and then go deeper over the next few weeks. The problem is that things tend to move fast, and very little is left after a few days. On the upside, the selection is amazing. 

To get through the inventory quickly, make use of the site’s navigation filters, where you can hone-in on things by brand and size. If you need suggestions, I think Nigel Cabourn, Engineered Garments, and Chimala are particularly good for workwear; Eidos and Margaret Howell for contemporary casualwear (those Howell duffle coats and fishtail parkas look amazing); and William Lockie for cashmere knits. 

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