Style Highlight: Workwear/Americana - Topic of the day 12/16/23
Is this your style or your style at times? How do you feel about this style? Inspo pics would be greatly appreciated too.
35 Replies
all my favorite brands in this category is Japanese 
Americana was high end when I was a kid. We're talking borderline behind the iron curtain levels of obsession about legit American denim. Levi's were aspirational, wranglers were dressy. The first branded clothes I owned were birthday presents as a teenager full grunge core black wranglers boots / jeans / hoodie / flannel so it will always be a part of my wardrobe.
I feel like this is just where my style is at the moment. Jeans, denim jackets, flannel shirts, carpenter pants etc. I don't know why but these are just the items of clothing that I feel drawn to. Maybe that'll change in a few years or maybe I'll just be here wearing the same jeans, boots and flannel shirts.
carhartt
Love this style and how approachable it is. It's a safe style for newcomers to experiment in, can be had very cheap, or you can go out there with more boutique items with some interesting stiching. Question for y'all: do you guys consider western/cowboy boots as a solid part of this style or are the boots considered more in the Iron Rangers/workboot category?
I feel like this is where I gravitate too as well
my benchmark for it would be "can i step out of my truck and walk into the woods and be fine with it?"
i also love the rough texture that you can play with here too
can also extend outside of the denims with cavalry twill, canvas, duck cloth etc
So true
I have no idea why, but work boots look better aesthetically for me in this category.
Selvedge denim was basically my introduction to fashion in a real way, so I’ve always been heavily influenced by workwear and americana. Would say that’s probably 60% of my style
Shout-out to French workwear and Vetra.
Imo neither, I feel like westernwear is different from americana
IMO it’s a sub-category
See: Wythe, Kapital, Barbanera, Brycelands, Mister Freedom, Rocky Mountain Feather Bed
What's more Americana than the American West
Stylistically it's just the workwear that was popular there anyway so it feels like a natural sub category
I love appropriating blue collar culture
Big fan of dickies jackets
This is definitely one of the easiest styles to look dripped out in. Nearly everyone who wears workwear looks great. That being said, it leaves a lot of room for experimenting creating an easy entry level but high skill ceiling. Also cool to see emphasis on purchasing pre owned and going for durable garments.
this would make a really interesting daily topic
One thing about the workwear thing that I'm not sold on is how much of it is cotton. I grew up hearing "cotton is rotten" i.e if you going to do anything outdoors don't wear cotton. Because cotton doesn't have great properties when you are soaked to the skin (something that happens unfortunately often if you are outdoors here). So as much as I am interested by workwear... Things like cotton jackets feel impractical to me and jeans, strangely enough, feel like something you would only want to wear if you were spending a lot of time inside.
A really fun and interesting collection of garments and history and styles. I tend to prefer Americana and workwear when it’s done full-send. The folks at Standard & Strange do a lot of fun looks like this.
I wonder if a lot of Americana is made for hot and arid environments.
if we're considering westerwear as a subcategory of americana a lot of that would qualify
Like this is workwear (in NZ at least) which I don't see at all in American styles (at least from what I've seen so far) https://www.swanndri.co.nz/mens/bushshirts.html
Shop Men’s Bushshirts Online - Swanndri NZ
The iconic Swanndri Men's Bushshirt is made from 100% ZQ wool grown in NZ. Unchanged since 1927. Shop online now with FREE Delivery on orders $100+
Vietnam war uniforms were cotton, if they could fight in those I'm sure you can go about your day to day life in cotton. I heard the cotton is rotten thing growing up too, but for most regular activities it doesn't matter
who won that war again 
if you're going to be soaked to the skin it's either weather or sweat. For weather you should be wearing something waterproof on top anyway, and for sweat there's really not much you can do. To be fair I think linen is better than cotton in the heat
The other cotton wearing people
damn
Checkmate
Tbh I only ever heard cotton is rotten for socks, which if you're doing outdoor rec like hiking makes a lot of sense
cotton is rotten, tweed is all you need
No one ever said that military grade is any better than "cheapest shit the government could get away with using."
ok
But this is a really good point.
When I was younger I was given a hand-me-down tweed blazer for going to church. One day I had to walk home in pouring rain. That blazer did keep me warm despite being soaked to the skin.
it only matters in cold weather
where sweat trapped against your skin can give you hypothermia
sweat getting trapped against your skin might not be comfy in hot weather but it will keep you cool which isn't a huge deal
I think another point about cotton for workwear clothing is that cotton is easier to wash than wool, and to my mind would also be easier to repair holes/rips etc than wool would be
at least I think that would be the case from the limited clothing repairs I've done
What you can do is have only 3 layers with the middle warm one being key and take them off to keep comfortably cold depending on activity...
I've heard the no cotton rule with a bit more nuance: "no cotton in the Arctic", in the cold, etc. Sometimes people say moleskin is an exception even then!
Good quotes here:
https://blog.nols.edu/2017/06/13/when-you-should-wear-cotton-in-the-outdoors 🤠
When You Should Wear Cotton in the Outdoors
Get ready for some myth busting! Despite its bad reputation, there are actually times when it makes sense to wear cotton on an outdoor adventure.
By Vietnam wasn't the US using a cotton/poly mix?
I love 100% cotton items, but for functionality it definitely isn't state of the art. Cotton's strength is combining comfort, longevity, and ease of care at a mass market price point.
the famous items were 100% cotton, OG-507 was introduced later
I consider western wear as a subset of Americana but I probably have a more expansive and inclusive definition of Americana than most