A Workwear Pant Working Overtime
Dickies makes great pants. Fact.
That’s the reason why they’ve crossed over from the blue-collar workers they were designed for to become a ubiquitous piece of legwear, found on skateparks worldwide and flipped inside out by stylishly astute TikTokers.
Pants this accomplished don’t need toying with. However, at the hands of a discerning designer, those ruggedly crafted, sharply shaped work pants make for the perfect blank canvas. And this summer, there have been numerous examples of Dickies’ staple trousers being brilliantly elevated.
The latest of these notable Dickies collaborations comes from a surprising source, a barber shop.
Most barbers wear an apron embellished with a series of nifty pockets and hooks to hold all their many utensils. But not at MR.BROTHERS CUT CLUB, the traditional Japanese barbershop has custom Dickies pants that hold all the scissors, combs, clips, spray bottles, and razors a barber could ever need.
Based on Dickies 874 model, the brand’s original work pant introduced in 1967, these MR.BROTHERS CUT CLUB trousers deliver a series of practical barber-appropriate upgrades. Reinforced knees, extra pockets, and a strip of webbing running along the thigh create an extra durable design with storage space aplenty.
Dickies x MR.BROTHERS CUT CLUB is clever stuff, repositioning a storied workwear icon for a different kind of work. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Dickies’ Japanese contingent has been especially busy this summer. It began the season with Saturdays NYC, creating formal pleated shorts in the image of its heavy-duty jorts.
From there came Japanese label FACETASM with its deep-pocketed Dickies cargo pants inspired by military wear and VAINL ARCHIVE, which brought a small stash pocket onto the front of its Dickies pants and added a drawstring hem to adjust the shape.
UNDERCOVER took a different approach and instead of making the pants more practical, it turned them wavier through meandering panels of fabric. Plus, in the name of extra deconstruction, it brought the wash labels onto the exterior.
However, not all the collaborations rework Dickies’ quintessential pants quite so extensively.
The Japanese mega-retailer BEAMS instead opted for a simple wide-leg corduroy pair, fellow retailer FREAK’S STORE upped the proportions with an extra wide-leg, and longstanding Los Angeles streetwear label STAMPD opted for a minimalist pair of double-knee slacks. Yes, even American streetwear labels are going to Dickies Japan for their collaborations.
While in America, Dickies’ homeland, we make do with a steady trickle of collaborations (such as its recent loose-fit jeans made with skater Mike Anderson), Dickies Japan is on a tear.
As is so often the case, the Japanese market gets the lion’s share of the good stuff.
Does anyone have a reliable proxy?
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