Menswear’s Most Unlikely Trend Of 2016: Construction Worker Style Goes Mainstream

This year was chock full of surprises, some good, some bad (though most were very, very bad). In the world of menswear trends, no surprise was bigger than the one trend that took hold of designer-obsessed hypebeasts and average Joes alike: construction worker style. That’s right, it wasn’t Gucci-inspired embroidery on everything, self-lacing sneakers, or even skate rat style. It was Carhartt jackets, Dickies pants, Champion hoodies, beat-up dad hats, relaxed-fit jeans and work boots—or high-priced facsimiles thereof—that men across the board embraced in their closets. It’s one of the most prevalent style moves we spotted on runways and in the streets, even among the fashion elite. Sound familiar? It might. Back in 2014, “normcore” was the buzziest and most blog-able word of the year. This new wave, for which we’re still open to naming suggestions (Construction Core? Rust Belt Core? Dunkin’ Core?), certainly has a tangential relationship to normcore. Both, after all, are about rejecting the traditional meaning of luxury in the name of electing to wear garments and gear people thought to have no interest in fashion would choose to wear. And while both trends share a similar origin story of how they got into the mainstream, normcore’s new cousin has its roots in true blue-collar workwear, not big box store basics. Read more at GQ.