Menswear, Workwear, They’re Practically the Same
After the 2024 election, many speculated feminine fashion was going conservative, but the argument wasn't extended to menswear
From the western frontier to present-day Dumbo, Brooklyn, the common man is often wearing some form of a cowboy get-up. While the Brooklynite is not ambling about town on a Mustang, he is most likely sporting a thick, freshly-trimmed mustache and creased cowboy boots while ordering his daily matcha. However, there is a lingering and unsettling feeling about this resurging trend, partially attributed to the internet's obsession with aesthetics.
The American Dream, coined in the 1930s, tightly defined that the idea of success in the country of freedom and prosperity occurs through hard work. In some capacity, the belief is held by any person seeking to access riches through any means, such as materials, community, and property. Decades prior, Manifest Destiny was a precursor to the dream when pioneering was at the helm of making it in America, where traditionalism and colonialism thrived under this notion. With acres of land, the man's new job was maintaining an ever-large ranch, while the woman remained the monotonous homemaker.
Fashion for men resulted in jeans, boots, and cowboy hats for the down-and-dirty work of ranch life. Practicality was the most essential feature of the working man's uniform to be ready and on the go for any unexpected curveballs. Ultimately, showcasing how fashion weaves with the time’s politics.
Menswear would see another monumental shift over a half-century later when class and masculinity were redefined. When white-collar careers rose during the economic-prospering 1950s, suits became the workman's uniforms and shifted the perception of self-presentation in the workplace. Men's tailored fashion simultaneously reflected how the country viewed structure, bleeding into the home, also known as the nuclear family. Once again, the husband suited up and commuted to his city job, and the wife worked as the household manager.
Concurrently, a slight trend emerged when musician Bing Crosby was denied entry into a swanky Vancouver hotel due to his rugged denim look. The New York Times, at the time, reported, "Crosby had sauntered into the [hotel] lobby after an all-day drive from Idaho wearing a leather jacket, dungarees, cowboy boots and 'no shave.'" The night clerk thought Crosby appeared as a "bum," and repeatedly informed him that the hotel was booked for the night.
Shortly after, Levi's created an all-denim look for Crosby, named the "Canadian Tuxedo." The new look contradicted the idea that denim was against establishments' dress codes due to its low-status symbol and association with the rugged Western lifestyle.
It would be remissible not to mention how utilitarian workwear blended both the Western Front and white-collar at times of war. During the Second World War, when textile productions were scarce, the utility trend became ever-popular, and military-esque tailoring — accentuated shoulders and cinched waists — became purposeful for its ability to reduce fabric and durability for factory work. The tense political climate matched with the simple and sterile wartime outfits.
Now, why do these three trends matter? Each signals a time when fashion and politics jointly pointed towards conservatism and traditionalism. Cowboy core (as it's modernly known), gorp core (another term for utilitarian fashion), and the professionalism of suits are all forms of workwear aesthetics seeing a resurgence in media and fashion. They're equally pointing towards a time in society and politics where roles are being redefined.
It's now fashionable to wear the uniform of a cowboy or a blue-collar factory worker while slanging a tote bag around on the shoulder. For their Fall 2024 Parisian showcase, Louis Vuitton presented a collection inspired by the American West and "cowboy silhouette." At the 2025 Grammy Awards show, rapper Kendrick Lamar wore a Canadian tuxedo — a denim jacket designed by Maison Margiela — while accepting the "Record of the Year" for his song, "Not Like Us."
Every look for the Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2025 menswear features the form of a three-piece suit, which is a sort of callback to the 1980s yuppie era. Or Bottega Veneta piecing a great deal of drapey single-breasted suit looks on the runway.
Utilitarian fashion, or gorp core, has also made headway in recent runway collections. Carhartt, one of the founding fathers of workwear, collaborated with Japanese brand Sacai to rework and add a new "structural take" on the Carhartt WIP classic Detroit jacket for the men's fall 2025 collection.
What's happening here with menswear is directly related to the conservative trends surfacing in female spaces on the internet. Aesthetics such as "trad wives" and "clean girl" push the narrative of being freshly manicured and clean-shaven while performing domestic duties around the home, regardless of if there are children.
Though these trends have been in effect for years, the realization doesn't arrive until it’s too late, especially when the state of politics alarmingly tells us where we're at. Such as when, the then-nominee Defense Secretary, in November 2024, Pete Hegseth remarked on a woman's role in combat missions, stating, "It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated."
As these trends regress into conservatism and potentially fascism, these ultra-gender-specific fashion trends become aligned with a structured hierarchy where these ideologies work best. They, ultimately, force men to conform to supposed ideas of masculinity through the rebranding of fashion nostalgia. Workwear becomes menswear when the talk of traditional roles emerges because if the woman is cemented into the "trad wife" aesthetic, the man is right behind wearing his cowboy core to push his perceived masculinity.
Hence, fashion is political and has been forever. It's purposefully political when ideologies use
aesthetics as visual markers to represent their basis and intention. Fashion trends are never one-sided and will always reflect on the other side in some form. Whether it be the man cruising through town in his mustache and cowboy boots or his partner in a tight, slick bun wearing a milkmaid dress. These trends and aesthetics will pendulum swing when aligning with the state of politics.