5 Reasons Women My Age Are Wearing Dungarees Right Through Autumn
5 Reasons Women My Age Are Wearing Dungarees Right Through Autumn
I am 68 and I have ended the annual argument with my trousers. Here is how.
By Patricia Holloway, a customer in Leeds · 4 min read
- A stitched-look meadow rising from the hems, so they read as a made thing, not workwear
- Real room inside — a roll neck or thin jumper goes underneath without anything pulling
- Nothing at the waist to dig in, however long the Sunday lunch runs
- Buttoned straps and side buttons that adjust to whatever the morning calls for
- And the strange one: the daily stand-off in front of the wardrobe has stopped
The full five, with my photographs, below. The pair is the grey printed one from Manchester Boutique.
First, how I got here. I bought these dungarees in the warm months and assumed that would be that, come the cold they would go the way of the sundresses, into the spare room until spring. Then one sharp morning I pulled a cream roll neck on underneath them, more in hope than expectation, added a cardigan, and stood in front of the mirror slightly annoyed at how well it worked. I have barely worn anything else since. When I realised I could name exactly five reasons why, I wrote them down, and the boutique asked if they could put my list up for other women to read.
The autumn arrangement: roll neck underneath, cardigan over, dungarees doing the actual work.
They do not look like workwear
This is the reason people stop me. The grey is washed and soft, and a whole meadow rises from the hems, poppies, daisies, lilac blooms, the odd butterfly, climbing to about the knee, with a few blooms scattered on the bib. It is a stitched-look print, properly detailed, and from across the street it reads as something somebody made rather than something ordered from a farm catalogue.
The day the first pair came. The meadow is the whole point.
There is real room to layer underneath
This is the autumn trick, and the reason this list exists. The cut is relaxed through the body and the leg, so a long-sleeved roll neck slides underneath and nothing strains or bunches, and on the properly bitter mornings a thin jumper goes under instead and the bib still sits flat. Trousers ask you to size up for winter. These just make space.
Laid out the night before, dressed as one outfit. This took me eight seconds.
There is nothing at the waist to dig in
The one nobody believes until they have sat through a long Sunday lunch. The weight hangs from the shoulders, not the middle, so there is no waistband to negotiate with after the pudding, no button pressing its case while you are trying to enjoy the conversation. I have gardened in them, driven to Harrogate and back in them, and sat through my grandson’s entire school concert without once adjusting anything.
End of a long day, worn since breakfast, no complaints filed by any part of me.
The buttons adjust to the morning
The one my daughter borrowed for her own argument. The shoulder straps fasten with buttons and there are buttons at each side of the waist, so the whole thing loosens or neatens depending on what has gone underneath, a thin top in September, something more substantial by November. Nothing to wrestle, nothing to break, and they go on and off without any of the hopping trousers require.
One button at each shoulder, two at the waist. That is the entire instruction manual.
The wardrobe stand-off has stopped
The strange one. Every autumn morning of my adult life has started with a small negotiation in front of the wardrobe, which trousers, which top, does this go with that. It has simply stopped. The dungarees are the outfit, everything underneath is just a jumper, and the print does the work I used to expect from an hour of deliberation. I get dressed in the time it takes the kettle to boil, and I look more put together than I did when I was trying.
Tomorrow, decided tonight. The entire question, answered on one table.
I already own two pairs, and the grey ones have done more days this autumn than everything else in the wardrobe combined. The trousers have not come out of the drawer since the first cold morning, and between us, I do not think they are coming out. I am 68, I dress like I have somewhere better to be, and I am more comfortable than I have been in years.
— Patricia Holloway, Leeds
Two practical things before you go. There is a sale on at the moment, and the first autumn stock is already going, so the size you want is not guaranteed to wait for you. And the grey meadow is one of eight prints in the collection, there are botanical greens and florals and brighter things, so there will be a pair that is properly you.
COMFORTABLE PRINTED OVERALLS
Every size, S to 5XL · Free UK delivery
See The Dungarees CollectionThere is a sale on. The first autumn stock is already going.
Patricia Holloway is 68 and lives in Leeds. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid for this list.
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