Harry Pilkington

Title of dissertation: All-In-One Masculinity — The Overall: Work, Sex and Power


‘A new suit of overalls has among its beauties those of a blueprint: and they are a map of a workingman.’

— James Agee


‘I once spoke to a guy who liked to lock his normal clothing away for the weekend and be forced to wear his dirty overalls until Monday morning.’

— Mark, coveralls.co.uk


This dissertation seeks to establish the overall as the definitive masculine garment of the twentieth century — a uniquely static yet mutable sartorial symbol containing a complexity of meaning by virtue of its manifold appropriations and interpretations over the period.


From its origins as workwear, the garment comes to be appropriated as a model for both utopian and dystopian dress, a tool for political messaging, the chosen ‘uniform’ for artists across a century, a recurring motif within contemporary fashion and a piece of clothing that continues to be admired by many, to the point of obsession.