What is heritage style? A guide to heritage menswear

Heritage style is clothing that takes its design, its materials and its way of being made from the past, usually from the work, military and outdoor clothing of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Think selvedge jeans, Goodyear-welted boots, chore coats, flannel shirts, waxed jackets and heavyweight tees. These were things people once wore because they had to survive hard work, and they are worn today because they still do.

It is less a fashion trend than a way of buying. Heritage clothing is made to be worn for years, repaired when it wears through and passed on when you are done with it. The phrase you will hear most is "buy once, cry once": spend more on the right thing once rather than less on the wrong thing again and again.

Where heritage style comes from

Most heritage pieces started as uniforms for a job. Denim jeans and jackets were made for miners, ranchers and railway workers. The chore coat, the French bleu de travail, was a farmhand's and a mechanic's jacket. Engineer boots, logger boots and the moc toe were built for men working on their feet all day. The flight jacket, the field jacket and the deck jacket came from the military, the waxed cotton jacket from sailors and farmers in the north of England.

From the 1980s onwards, Japanese makers began studying and reproducing these garments with extraordinary care: the "Osaka Five" denim brands, then labels such as The Real McCoy's and Buzz Rickson's for military clothing. At the same time, the old American and British makers that had survived, from Filson and Red Wing to Barbour and Alden, found a new audience that valued exactly what they had always done.

What makes something heritage

Not every plaid shirt is heritage clothing. What sets the real thing apart is how it is made.

• Honest, heavy materials. Cotton denim and duck canvas, wool flannel and melton, full-grain and vegetable-tanned leather, waxed cotton. Fabrics are chosen for how they wear and age, not for how they look on day one.
• Construction you can repair. Boots are Goodyear-welted or stitchdown, so the sole can be replaced again and again. Jeans are chain-stitched and bar-tacked where they take strain. Jackets have reinforced pockets and flat-felled seams.
• Designs with a reason. Every pocket, rivet and gusset was once there for a job. Heritage clothing keeps those details because they still work.
• Made by people who care. Many of the best pieces come from small factories in Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada and Europe, often on old machinery that has not been made for decades.
• It gets better with age. Raw denim fades to the shape of the wearer, leather darkens and softens, canvas breaks in. A five-year-old pair of boots should look better than a new one.

The core pieces

If you are building a heritage wardrobe, these are the pieces most people start with.

Raw selvedge jeans

The foundation of most heritage wardrobes. Bought raw, unwashed and stiff, they mould to you and fade with your own wear patterns. See what selvedge denim is for the full story, or browse men's jeans by price and size.

Work boots

A pair of Goodyear-welted or stitchdown boots, such as a Viberg Service Boot, an Alden Indy boot or a Red Wing moc toe, will outlast several pairs of ordinary shoes and can be resoled for decades. See every pair in men's boots.

A chore coat or work jacket

The most versatile jacket in heritage style: a simple, boxy coat in canvas, denim or moleskin with patch pockets. It works over a tee in summer and over a flannel in winter. Browse men's jackets.

Flannel, chambray and work shirts

Heavy flannel, chambray and CPO shirts can be worn as shirts or as light jackets. Look for flat-felled seams, chain-stitched hems and good buttons. See men's shirts.

Heavyweight tees and loopwheeled sweats

The plain things matter too. A dense, heavy tee or a sweatshirt knitted on a loopwheel machine keeps its shape for years where a cheap one twists after a few washes. See men's tees and sweatshirts.

How to start without spending a fortune

You do not need everything at once, and you should not buy it all at once. Start with the piece you will wear most, usually jeans or boots, and buy the best one you can afford. Wear it hard for a season before deciding what is next.

Watch for sales. Heritage brands rarely discount, but the shops that stock them do, and the same jeans can cost very different amounts at different shops. That is exactly why we built hardstoc: every product is compared across the independent shops that stock it, with the sizes each one has in stock, so you can buy the right thing at the best price. Our sale page brings every shop's reductions together.

Caring for heritage clothing

Heritage clothing rewards a little attention. Wash denim rarely and inside out. Brush and condition leather boots every few months and use shoe trees. Rewax waxed jackets once a year. Repair before you replace: a good cobbler or denim repairer can add years to anything here.

Do that, and the pieces you buy now will still be with you in twenty years, looking better than the day you bought them.