There was a time when we spent a lot of time at our grandparents’ watching Golden Girls and eating grilled cheese sandwiches and also spending time in the garage stacked with oily humming mechanical stuff that old men work on—Our Grandpa, for example, wore one of those navy Dickies jumpsuits with black stains and frayed edges and because we didn’t know any better we thought, Oh, this must be what Grandpas do when they retire, they move into the garage and start wearing jumpsuits.
Men’s jumpsuits often get a bad rap because they conjure up images of Elvis impersonators, but there is something innately masculine about a man in a jumpsuit. Like, remember flight suits? When our friend Rudy over at Cockpit U.S.A. showed us the line’s remake of a vintage WWII flight suit we dreamt up images of pilots standing guard next to their Kitty Hawks in strappy brown coveralls. The jumpsuit, however functional it may be, has the capacity to be a stylish and eccentric one piece. Prada’s downtown version saturated the Spring ’08 runways with soft silk fleur-de-lis like prints while Adam Kimmel had his own take on the L.E.S. artiste lounge suit in velvet. If you want to opt for a more conservative jumpsuit silhouette Z-Zegna makes a simple utilitarian design, and there’s always our favorite staple from OG workwear maker, Dickies. Regardless of the style of jumpsuit, we know Grandpa would be nodding in agreement, appreciating our shift into early-retirement wear.