🔥FIRE SALE🔥 No. 14
Defunct American workwear 🇺🇸🛠, decommissioned East German military garb 🇩🇪🪖, and Swedish pants worthy of a Viking King 🇸🇪🪛
I live in a basement on a gorgeous tree-lined street in Manhattan (brag), and though I feel very fortunate, there is something particularly gruelly about a winter below ground. In my bedroom, which receives little to no light, I have taken on the habits and personality of an American black bear or Indiana bat in deep hibernation. As the daylight grows stronger, I am compelled toward the inviting light of spring. My eyes creek open, and I realize that the cherry blossoms are blooming, and the daffodil bulbs my friend planted outside of my apartment in a brave covert guerilla gardening operation are sprouting from the earth, offering a cheery hello. Though, I’m not the only person exiting hibernation. The springtime is also a reawakening of the Southern Tide adjacent prepster whose style hasn’t evolved beyond the spring ‘13 lacrosse season as well as dirtbag yuppies with a handsome paycheck and a $120 Carhartt Detroit jacket. This spring, I don’t plan on reaching for any pieces whose hue even slightly resembles a Peep, and while at this point I consider Carhartt and Dickies incredibly cooked and pedestrian, there still is something mature, confident, and casual about workwear when it is not worn like a blue-collar costume but instead freaked by your own personal style. So while workwear is the official off-duty uniform of the soft-handed class, there are still facets worth exploring, and finding those distinctions continue to excite me. So somewhat predictably, it is going to be a heritage workwear spring for me. The pieces I have assembled for this edition of 🔥FIRE SALE🔥 come from unexpected sources and toe the line between uniform and out of the ordinary.
👕Lets’s start with the uniform. Nothing gets my blood flowing like uncovering a new (old) workwear brand from the 20th century and scouring the internet for their archive. Big Yank, my latest find, is a jackpot online. The company, which was initially founded as an in-house brand for Reliance Manufacturing, was made available to the mass market in the early 20th century. In addition to making parachutes for the U.S. military during World War II, Reliance made pajamas, shirts, and pants under the Big Yank label. This 1970s Chambray shirt from Big Yank, which offers a softer and more breathable weave than a traditional denim shirt, is a perfect base for a spring outfit. In addition, this khaki work shirt, also from Big Yank, is heavy enough to wear as an overshirt and is frankly begging to be adorned with patches or maximalist embroidery.
🛠Boiler suits are often reserved for the wardrobe of the creepiest character actors in a given film or program. Think John Carroll Lynch in Zodiac, Glenn Flescher in True Detective, or Bill Camp in The Queen’s Gambit. Nothing signals creepy-ass-basement-slug quite like the boiler suit. They’ve been somewhat appropriated by boho wives who pair them with a straw hat and Vejas 🤢 but I think they can be pretty damn punk with the proper styling. More Signour Weaver in ALIEN. Less Zodiac killer, or worse, play-acting poverty. This particular boiler suit from Big Yank is a size 38 small and a rare treasure for a sector that seems to attract big fellas.
🏃♂️More bangers from Big Yank! I’ve been searching everywhere for a sweatshirt with a pouch, but no hood, and Big Yank has answered my prayers with this heather grey sweater in a cotton-poly blend. The seller mention that it runs small – nearly cropped. That length, or lack thereof, gives it a Ridell High P.E. class look. Your inner Travolta is ready to be unleashed.
🩳When it comes to shorts, I am completely lost. In the spring and summer, I either stomp around in my running shorts or a pair of pleated khaki shorts from Land’s End. These Big Yank denim shorts with a nice slim stripe might just shake me out of my rut. I actually think I can hear “Surfin’ USA” coming from the T-Bird cruising down PCH as we speak.
🪖Comrades! It’s still going to be cool, if not cold for a while, so it’s important to add a nice spring jacket to your kit. Americana Pipedream, a military surplus store run out of Wisconsin, always has incredibly well-sourced military surplus at insanely low prices. I’ve seen an uptick in M65 American military jacket liners on the street lately. I don’t know if there was a massive payload of product dropped at Church Street Surplus or if H&M just started production to equip a small fighting force, but I think these unissued German jacket liners and this East German Strichtarn summerweight field jacket from Americana Pipedream will give you that desired infantry look but also distinguish you from other bogies.
🎖Like most online fashion guys, I am a big fan of Albert Muzquiz, or @edgyalbert, on TikTok. His personal style is always on point, channeling returning G.I.s, classic Hollywood hotties, and California workwear heritage. He’s a master at educating men on how to dress better and a bit sluttier. I was obsessed with his latest discovery, Swedish fatigue pants, which he described as a marriage between U.S. Army fatigue pants and French workwear. Feeling inspired by what I saw, I went digging online and found some incredible pieces, all around $50. These Swedish Army ladies’ sanforized fatigue pants have gorgeous details and massive butt pockets. The Swedes also made a denim work pant, seen here in grey, that looks sturdy and ready for any military engineering operation. Finally, we have an original sateen Swedish army pant with their signature pleats and one back pocket. Unlike the famously neutral Swedish military, I fully support their dedication to making rad pants.
🇸🇪This foray into Swedish military kit only took me deeper into the icy center of the Viking kingdom, and what I found was some seriously eccentric workwear. Blaklader, founded in the 1950s in rural Sweden, has been the major workwear supplier for the nation ever since its inception. Imagine putting in a hard day’s work factory and then catching Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. That’s a pretty high-brow day for a lineman.
👷♂️Dickies has the 874. Carhartt, the double knees. The cornerstone of Blaklader’s business is the 1530 work pant introduced in 1984. These hyper-utilitarian pants have adjustable kneepads, utility pockets in every damn direction, and unique side pockets flopping off the waistband. I am especially drawn to the two-toned pants in a stone blue and black and a simple navy pair. They’re perfect for the job site, especially if the job site is a dive bar with a pool table and a bucket of Miller Lite.
👨🏻🔧While the 1530 is Blaklader’s bread and butter, the brand also managed to make some incredibly stylish and unique jackets throughout the years. I especially like this canvas work jacket in black and a faded red that is almost hot pink. The design, which is really designing, resembles an Arc'teryx shell more than an Eisenhower jacket.
🪛 In Chris Black’s recent column for the Strategist, a reader asked, “are chore coats done?” to which Black emphatically responded, “I would disagree.” I would also put myself in Black’s camp, though I have felt for some time that it is important to distinguish yourself with your chore jacket selection. This denim overshirt from Blaklader resembles the iconic French chore jacket, but the discerning eye will notice a different pocket design and a sturdier structure. It’s more hardcore Viking shipbuilder. Less free and easy Provençal farmer.
In celebration of the Swedish people and their commitment to beautiful design, I want to share a commercial for IKEA’s first American store. It’s a weird 80s cartoon mixed with stilted QVC-style browsing—a true time capsule.