Next time you see a group of workers on the street, look again. I promise there will be at least one individual who – against all logic - has customised their uniform and wears it with an attitude that makes them way cooler than you in your predictable, safe code of dress. For these guys, Sukhumvit Road is the catwalk, and we are merely audience members.

Working within the conformity of practical work-wear, these brave frontiersmen will force you to re-think your entire approach to ‘wearing clothes’. Like, “Holy Shit! How pre-meditated was the decision to match that Nazi helmet with a cowboy shirt? Is it a statement about Bush’s America, or something more sinister?”

I asked someone who knows a lot more about fashion than me – the legendary Brendan Jai, Fashion Professor – what he thought of these discoveries, and whether he could help me unravel just what the hell is going on.

 

At first, I thought this guy was on a whole new level, until BJ set me straight.

Already on the phone to friends in Shoreditch, I was hailing the discovery of an electro-military Thai Afrikaa Bambaata until BJ dismissed my ignorance.

At least he agreed with me on the yellow window cleaner.

What I had taken for a post globalist fast-food stoner military trash shock statement, BJ described as: “Just trash. Pink could never work well with camouflage. This look is very difficult.”

 

I maintain that ‘Worker Chic’ – as I have dubbed it – can break the mould of conformity, mixing together items hitherto undreamt of to form bizarre and other-worldly looks. However, after hearing from BJ, I have also come closer to accepting that this may have more to do with random luck than conscious effort. At the end of the day, perhaps it doesn’t matter either way.

Cool is just cool.
 

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