Few music videos have had a greater, and more unexpected, effect on fashion than Dexy’s Mignight Runner’s demin-clad, boot-stomping, street-corner fiddling ‘Come on Eileen’. Don’t believe me? Just check out Ralph Lauren’s new denim dungarees for this season. That’s right, dungarees. On show at Roberto Cavalli, Rouland Mouret and Jean Paul Gautier. They’ve even made it on to the front cover of Vogue. Everyone’s favourite over-the-shoulder, bib-fronted slice of ye olde workwear is back like it’s Depression-era Iowa.
Of course, since Kevin Rowland looked wistfully through the chicken-wire at Eileen in 1982, dungarees haven’t really ever gone away; they’ve been a vital part of the uniform for painters, carpenters, mechanics and factory workers all over the world. But the reason that they’re making their mark on the fashion scene once again is that, while being about as handy as a multi-head screwdriver, they won’t make you look like a bag of spanners. Unlike their sleeved cousins, the overall or all-in-one, dungarees leave just enough on show to keep things interesting.
Which old Eileen knew only too well, as she stomped through Kennington in her rolled-up dungarees, naked as the day she was born under those denim straps. Kevin and his chums may have been dancing like horses at a dressage event, and their combination of slip-on brogues without socks and little woolly hats may be very fashion-forward in an East London chic sort of way, but it is Eileen’s sexy mixing of traditional masculine work wear with a feminine flirtatiousness that translates best to catwalk designs.
So, let’s hear it for elasticated straps, holster pockets, knee pads and, dare I say it, a reinforced yoke.
Nell Frizzell
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