How a flourishing cottage industry of independent British labels has hit the post-Covid workwear sweet spot
IF THERE’S A DEFINITIVE ITEM OF MEN’S CLOTHING RIGHT NOW, it’s probably the humble chore jacket. Invented by the French to outfit 19th-century railway workers, the chore has become ubiquitous among a more contemporary set of earners: architects, designers, creative directors, chefs (who used to be creative directors) and Monty Don on the TV, pottering around the garden in Blundstones and a ragged bleu de travail, a golden retriever weaving between his feet. It’s the perfect hybrid garment —a bit of blazer and a bit of outer wear, with loads of pockets and a simple silhouette that can be manufactured in wool, cotton, denim, canvas or suede. It epitomises the style of clothing known as workwear. You don’t have to wear it to work in. But you can, especially in our unbuttoned age of WFH. And even if you are desk-bound in a corporate setting, there’s something about dressing like a Norfolk cockle picker or a Nottingham carpenter that seems to holds an insatiable appeal for many stylish British men.
Adam Cameron founded The Workers Club in 2015 with his wife Charlotte. After years spent as head of design at Dunhill, Cameron was tired of the pressures of working for a British luxury heritage brand, and he had the experience and knowledge of how he might make something for himself and people like him. “The Workers Club was in gestation for my whole time there,” says Cameron, “so around 15 years. Charlotte and I went to college together, and we always spoke about having our own business, which sounds very twee. We wanted to live in the countryside and drive a Land Rover and have chickens… That was the dream. It was always an itch that I wanted to scratch. We wanted to create something that was pure and uncompromised, I suppose. Maybe it was a bit self-indulgent, but I wanted to spend as much time as I wanted and could on it. It’s really well-made and really well thought- out, because we spend the time and energy on every item.”
TWC first launched online on Mr Porter and opened its first shop on Chiltern Street, in Mar ylebone, London, in 2023. It makes heavy-duty waxed jackets, work shirts and relaxed trousers that don’t conform to the rapid-fire seasonality of contemporary fashion: items of clothing that feel tactile and expensive and like they can handle a bit of a beating. “The term ‘workwear’ doesn’t cover all bases,” says Cameron, “but if I were to sum it up, it’s function
