Fashion’s love affair with workwear shows no sign of ending. Streetwear designer Heron Preston (Yeezy, Nike) is set to present a collection inspired by garbage collectors, at New York Fashion Week next month. Preston has worked with the department of sanitation in New York (DSNY), upcycling their old outfits and logos.
Tapping up the look of the garbage man is the next logical step of the utilitarian trend, following the bouncer, the butcher and the fisherman. At this point, it seems more than just a fetishisation. If one were to get socio-historical about it, it might have something to do with austerity. As we move further away from manual labour-based industries being a reality (steelworks, shipbuilding, coal mining) in favour of office-based ones, there is temporal distance and those clothes become items not of the everyday but of idealisation and, in turn, high fashion.
Previously, Preston has incorporated elements of utility into his work. His online concept store HPC Trading Co included a cream white sweatshirt featuring the logo, Narcotics K-9 Unit Drug Detective and an IKEA-ish folded-up table wrapped in DHL-yellow straps.
The primary items that make up the DSNY look (the sweatshirts, the hi-vis tops and the orange gloves) also all tie into the intersection between traditional sportswear and athleisure. While the olive green shade of the uniform has been a permanent fixture of the spring summer 17 menswear collections, the militaristic shade (very Che Guevara and his junta) has been seen in pieces from Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Moncler Gamme Bleu, Lemaire and more. The peach colour of the T-shirt, meanwhile, is very on trend (think: The Life Of Pablo and Palace peach).
