Posted on: Monday, August 23, 2004
ABOUT MEN
In driver's seat of fashion
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Reporter
At last! A fashion trend I can feel good about: Mack trucks.
That's right, Mack is The Man on this year's college campuses. Trucker wear is chic. Big rigs are righteous.
It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before the fashion world would catch up with me. I have to admit, though, that I thought it would have happened a lot sooner.
Even though I've never been behind the wheel of anything bigger than a Honda Civic station wagon, I've been a trucker poser for years. I love the sound of air brakes in the night. I crave black coffee in a roadside cafˇ. I know all the lyrics to truck-driving songs like "Looking at the World Through a Windshield" and "Took Three Bennies and My Semi-Truck Won't Start."
So when the people at Mack Trucks, the icon of the industry, recently announced they are partnering with the New York-based Johnny M company to launch a new trucker clothing line next year, I was definitely excited. They plan to feature items using the Mack Bulldog image and the "built like a Mack truck" reputation.
But what exactly is trucker wear?
That fad for foam-fronted baseball caps came and went faster than you could say, "Ashton Kutcher," so that can't be it. It's hard to put a CB handle on a polo shirt, so there must be more to it than that. Flannel shirts fit the image, but wouldn't be practical in Hawai'i.
I suspect that trucker wear is all about the kind of comfort that you really need when you are driving one of those big rigs across the country but are making only $22,000 per year and can't afford to look really good. (Who needs a silk shirt to impress the ladies when you've got 18 wheels and an air horn?) It's about the durability you need when you for sitting on your backside for 12 hours at a time. It's about a certain ruggedness, even romance.
All of which I've always strived for in my never-ending pursuit of a fashion statement that involves blue jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps, foam-fronted or otherwise.
With the news that Mack was moving into the fashion world, I started fantasizing that I could finally throw away all those logo polo shirts that have been clogging my drawers for years. I can give the Tommy Bahamas the heave. I'll keep the aloha shirts, but only for trips to Vegas.
"Wait a minute," said my wife, who has always been a little chagrined about my determination to dress poorly. "You're the one who has always been anti-fashion. If trucker wear is suddenly cool, what's that going to do your image?"
I hadn't thought of that.
So if this trucking thing really takes off, I might have to come up with something entirely different to maintain my own standards.
Does anybody know what journalist wear looks like?
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
