THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MONIQUE WILLIAMS, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
DATELINE: 940609 LENGTH: Medium
What you're seeing isn't your average run-of-the-mill uniform but the latest fashion statement.
{REST} Uniforms like coveralls, painters' bib and carpenter pants - the stuff that companies like Dickies have been making for more than 70 years - are the latest trend coming out of New York's Seventh Avenue.
No way, you say.
The notion of fashion used to be that it filtered from the top down - a trickle down from the rich who wore high fashion.
No more. Fashion today is coming from the bottom up, and the streets are where everything is happening.
Call it reverse chic or anti-fashion, but from grunge to hip-hop, it's the kids who are coming up with innovative trends.
And leave it to Seventh Avenue to jump on the bandwagon. For fall, designers Donna Karan, Calvin Klein and a host of others showed utilitarian collections that baffle companies like Dickies.
``They find it very amusing,'' said a spokesperson for Dickies. ``They can't believe that they are now high-fashion.''
How did the fascination with uniforms come about?
It started during recessionary times, when having a job was the ultimate status symbol.
``For the street guy, it's reaching for a different reality, a fantasy,'' says Jack Herschlag of the National Association of Men's Sportswear Buyers. ``The reality of work is a fantasy for someone who knows he can't find a job.''
Donning a uniform meant having an institutional job, which meant security.
The celebration of the work ethic and of blue-collar values and the accompanying return to workwear is suited to the '90s, the decade of inconspicuous consumption.
But beyond its social significance, wearing a uniform, for some, is adopting a role through fashion.
``It's the latest costume,'' says Herschlag. ``In a sense, it's no different than Western wear . . . that too is a costume.''
And the street guy loves costumes. Rappers in Los Angeles wore oversized work pants, skaters wore bib overalls and Pearl Jammers wore steel-toed boots.
According to the Men's Fashion Association, workwear is no longer a trend and has entered mainstream. The big news for fall are engineer stripes and ``authentic'' overalls, carpenter pants and chore jackets.
And if the folks at Dickies - a $400 million company which has seen its volume increase by a third in the last few years - have their way, their workwear will hang in your closet side-by-side with your Dockers, Calvin Kleins and Levis.
``More and more, men are looking for real American brands and styles from the past,'' says Jim Kindley, vice president of marketing at Dickies.
``They are wearing professional quality Dickies instead of plain jeans for stylish wear and to do odd jobs around the house,'' Kindley said.
Workwear also is popular because it is comfortable, roomy, has tons of pockets, fine workmanship and high-quality material. And the price is right.
Seventh Avenue, however, isn't limiting itself to Dickies knockoffs. There are some uniforms that you just can't go out and buy - like the UPS one and the mail carrier's.
They have been reinterpreted by designers to include men's and women's versions, and they don't exactly look like the real thing.
The difference? The silhouette has changed, and they are very sexy. The bib overall is now a flirty bib dress. The delivery uniform for women is a cropped top and a very short skirt. The price, like the hemlines, has been hiked to obscene heights.
Will designer workwear work? It if goes the way of designer grunge, which was, by all accounts a royal flop, designers better roll up their sleeves and get to work.
by CNB