Style Spotlight: Heritage - Topic of the day 3/8/25
Buy American! That’s the motto of many heritage brands. The aesthetic dominated in the 2010s and is still worn today by many people. Often characterized as the rugged analog to “timeless” clothing, heritage brands love showing off a classic America.
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I believe the heritage craze of the 2010s is largely responsible for the Internet menswear scene‘s obsession with some arbitrary concept of quality which one the one hand is not much more than a buzzword but did some good imo in showcasing to people that there was a lot of „fashion“ somewhere in between what you could get at your local mall and what was shown on runways.
Personally - I consider this a net positive though the mysticism of quality eluded me.
Heritage also made for a great jumping off point for a lot of us I’m going to pretty bluntly assume.
The message was imo quite simple: „Anyone can look good in these timeless classics.“
Designs evoked a nostalgia for a time back when most of us weren’t even alive. Selvedge jeans came into the mainstream, Goodyear Welt might well have been gospel, vegetable tanned leather almost replaced vegetables for food.
For me, the measurable „betterness“ of everything heritage style offered was a big confidence booster that got me into fashion a bit more.
I knew what I was wearing was good in some way or other.
Of course much of it was marketing bullshit in the end - but it did a number on a lot of us and at least I came out of it with a net positive result.
Also Pistol Lake Sweatshirts in 2014 were the GOAT and you can’t convince me otherwise.
i like it best when I don't want to totally lean into the 2010 heritage look
Jeans are cool, flannels are cool, boots are cool, but when I wear all at the same time I feel like a heritage guy :xd:
also i feel a key aspect of the "heritage" style is to have #patina in the tags but the jeans and boots look like they have never been worn (probably havent since heritage guys tend to buy so much shit)
at this point i wear heritage clothing 50% for function and 50% ironically
the heritage craze felt like a dressed up way for straight men to justify obsessing about clothes without being called gay or narcissistic. while for many this is a perfectly reasonable endgame aesthetic, i personally can't overlook the implications of exactly whose "heritage" it is enough to fully play it straight ykwim
Most modern heritage brands aren’t that great imo. Too many DTC brands invoking the vibes while selling terrible products for too much money.
Just buy Eddie Bauer from the 90s on eBay for 1/4 of the price.
Yah heavy agree the market is crazy saturated now with dogshit heritage workwear
my hot take is all of the current miusa workwear kicks ass (except gustin)
In general, strong agree. However the old school Japanesd vintage repro brands...Real McCoys and Warehouse for example, make some high quality stuff. Heck, even Orslow is basically heritage.
I am a simple man, I like jean and I like boot
Im always impressed by the ability of modern "heritage" brands to fuck up the original concept by "modernizing" it.
Take a perfectly good chambray shirt and fuck it up by giving it these whimpy early 10s collars for example.
Aero Leather also comes to mind.
There are a lot of bad "heritage" companies out there but also a large number of really cool ones out there. The old Japanese repos like Shrimp mentioned, plus smaller shops like The Rite Stuff. Bronson/nonstock is a bit controversial, but are a very affordable entry point for people (in decent cuts too).
Ironically it's easier to live up to the supposed ideals of heritage style if you're getting into it right now, since it's a lot easier to find good stuff in thrift shops
Going on ebay and searching up vintage woolrich and llbean can get you set up very cheap
Is it? I feel like thrifting is so much more mainstream and there is so much more knowledge out there these days. Stuff, online or actual thrift shops, feels way more picked over and expensive than it was when I was growing up.
in my experience now recognize heritage brands to sell for a markup at thrift stores or ebay, even for stuff that's damaged or well worn under the guise of authenticity or patina
i guess a big question is whether you prefer the heritage aesthetic or the heritage mentality (long-lasting stuff that broadly exist outside of trend cycles) because if it's the latter, the modern repros that either cut corners or try to reinvent the wheel are counterintuitive imo
barnstormer is another japanese brand that makes heritage-inspired chinos (they are distinct from the comoany that makes aviation clothing); they are expensive and hard to find but worth it imo