Vintage Workwear

Existing somewhere between a worker’s overshirt and a stripped-down blazer, the chore coat has its origins in 19th century France, where a cotton drill or moleskine shirt featuring roomy pockets was colored with a benzoate-based blue dye, which would hide stains from manual labor. Known as the bleu de travail — literally “blue work,” but effectively “dungarees” or “overalls” today — it became ‘standard issue’ for farmers, laborers, railway workers, and anyone living a hard, outdoor lifestyle. By the 1920s, French brands such as Vetra (from vetements de travail, or “work clothes”), Le Laboureur, and Mont Saint Michel began serial production of what had been a tailor-made affair, and the coat spread ‘across the pond.’