Inauthentic Authenticity – The Workwear Story

I generally try to resist trashing brands, blogs, and retailers here, feeling that if I don’t have anything nice to say, follow the platitude.  But, this one got under my skin, and so here I go hopping on the hate-on-workwear bandwagon.

Check out this copy being used to sell The Hill-Side ties on the Context webstore:

The Hill-Side takes a tough, working man’s approach to neckwear. These ties and handkerchiefs are not fancy or fragile, they are not merely decorative, nor are they status symbols. They are meant to be worn hard, every day, and they gain character with each use. Designers Emil and Sandy Corsillo source the majority of the fabric from Kojima, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, where fabrics are lovingly produced with artisan pride.

No, this is not an April Fools joke.  The link above is solely so you can see for yourselves.

If any of that doesn’t sound like total nonsense to you, please comment and explain to me what I’m missing.  Seriously, I’d really like to know.  The entire pitch seems to boil down to: a) There is only one correct masculinity, which b) is based on working at all times and not being frivolous in any way, and that c) if you do not agree with both a and b, you are somehow inauthentic and emasculated.  Then comes the misplaced patriotism.

The product packaging has four, yes four, USA locations on it, but somehow only manages to mention Japan in tiny letters under a staple on the back.  The fabric’s “origin” is Japan, but things are “MADE” in the USA.  Somehow, being made in “Bkln” and “Conn” (See Brooklyn and Connecticut) is supposed to signify an inherent quality that foreign goods could never hope to achieve.  There is no mention of whether the ties are handmade by craftsmen or sitting on a New England conveyor belt.  But, instead, it’s much easier to place a value on the place and proclaim “None of that wishy-washy foreign stuff for us!”  We real American men must make everything ourselves, with our bare hands.  Including hors d’oeuvres apparently.

You can tell from the above picture how critical the supposedly-functional necktie is for these guys and their ability to drink Bud and roll philo dough.  A necktie does in fact have a function – to be decorative.  Anything else is beyond my comprehension.  Ironic facial hair and an expensive apron (it’s a garment specifically made to get dirty for Christ-sake) are all part of meaning business.  No frilly, effeminate, decorative foppery for these men.  Instead of admitting that the acts of cooking and dressing are not emasculating, the advertisers turn the kitchen into a pseudo-garage and grunge it up with a denim apron.  The American man cooks, but he doesn’t cook like a lady.  He Man-Cooks in a chambray cravat, without which he might as well be making a casserole.  Value-baiting at its finest.

The Made in Uh’merica, manly-man crap has reached a level of pure absurdity.  Rather than hiding behind fake notions of authenticity, patriotism, and what it means to be a “real man,” why don’t we seek out real craftsmanship, quality, and passion in whatever form it takes?  And if you still think that it makes you a lady to like tying a piece of silk around your neck, even just for the simple pleasure of it, then you’ve got much bigger fish to fry.