What to wear to work

Spring Fashion supplement.

“Carpe diem’ doesn’t mean seize the day--it means something gentler and more sensible. ‘Carpe diem’ means pluck the day.” — Nicholson Baker (The Anthologist)

Hello friends.

I am in the middle of it.

Whether in the dead of slush-locked winter, or ensnarled in the southern hemisphere’s endless summer it seems that the tasks of the year of 2026 are no longer ignorable and really we only have two choices. 1) Go back to bed 2) Get to work. Having written to you extensively about hibernation I thought this week I wanted to talk about that second option.

Another still from Humain, Trop Humain. How beautiful is that Citroën

Le Journal d’une femme de chambre dir. Luis Buñuel 1964.

Mui Mui’ Spring 2026. “I’m interested in the lives of women in general, which is why I love aprons. The apron is a recurring theme in my work because it is symbolic of women’s sufferance … It’s an emblem of women’s despair, their poverty, their passions.—Miuccia Prada

But let’s ease into the idea of work slowly by looking at spring fashions. Miu Miu’s Spring 2026. “I’m interested in the lives of women in general, which is why I love aprons. The apron is a recurring theme in my work because it is symbolic of women’s sufferance … It’s an emblem of women’s despair, their poverty, their passions.—Miuccia Prada

Mrs. Prada has long been interested in workwear and this year’s smock-like aprons have been coyly (re-) introduced to the runways. She cites the French films by Malle and Brunel (above) as inspirations. Meanwhile, the less fashionable among us, or the people that are working in factories rather than being inspired by the people working in factories get dressed by a different logic.

Still whatever your way into working, there is something satisfying about the way makers choose to dress themselves. There is something to be said for finding a uniform to face the day with creativity, versatility, craftsmanship, protection, materiality and spirit that might inspire you. I’m picturing Agnes Martin’s tender, fully quilted painting suit, Renoir’s smock, Georgia O’Keefe’s almost liturgical black outfits.

These jackets are referencing a style of long white chore jacket, sometimes called a beer jacket or autograph jacket as graduates would get their friends to sign their name on them. This was popularized in the 1930s and 40s at Princeton. It was a style that I guess could be found at the famous Art Students League of New York as a coat that painters could wear when they were getting a bit messy. I am pretty sure the coat above is a recreation by some Japanese streetwear brand but the trail back to the image ended mysteriously somewhere deep in Pinterest

Here is a beautiful, non-recreation of the white cavas chore jacket. Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein, dite) c. 1932

I should probably mention to, that the worker’s smock has its roots in women’s underclothes, moves into a simple cotton covering for farmers, and then finds its way back to women who needed some kind of alternative or at least a covering for their Victorian outfits while painting in the studio.

American sculptor Janet Scudder (1869–1940

photograph by Jackie Nickerson from her series “Farm,” which documents agriculture in Southern Africa.

921 featuring a Caribou Inuk person from Arviat, Canada, during Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule expedition.

Vincas Juška, a prominent 19th-century Lithuanian book smuggler known as a knygnešys.

This is my kind of work uniform and a look I aspire to. What you choose to wear while in your most focused state is always beautiful. Always stylish. I hope this mini-photo essay points you toward your best version of getting ready to go deep. I hope you find the kind of exterior that leads you to the interior. I hope you live in genuine expression. From the heart outwards.

Bon Courage, Artiste!

—Jason

The photoessay continues for paid subscribers with a great engineering outfit, a handsome chef, and Georgia O’keefe making a smoothie. Every week (or so) I try to think up new version of seeing the world in terms of making and colour, instances of spirit and matter coming together.

To My beloved subscriber colour lab-ists. You are getting every newsletter I write and the longer fuller researches and more on making ink plus access to the archives and chat. It is slow going building an online community while working on my off-line self. All of your support in the form of subscribing, sharing, and commenting is hugely heart-warming.