Carhartt WIP Workwear? Carhartt WIP Military Wear
Carhartt already perfected workwear. The rough-and-ready American brand has become world-renowned by churning out hardwearing, blue-collar gear since the late 1800s.
Its younger sibling brand, Carhartt WIP, respects that history. However, it does regularly find ways to jazz up its heritage. For Fall/Winter 2025, that means dousing a full work uniform (canvas jacket, denim shirt, double-kneed pants) in a hot red hue and pairing it with pointy red cowboy boots, for instance.
And it also means going beyond workwear and taking inspiration from a genre of clothing even tougher, even more functional than workwear. Carhartt WIP is putting its spin on military gear.
In the FW25 collection, this is most obviously seen through camouflage prints. Items from an insulated Cordura zip-up to a military-esque fabric belt, all dressed in newly designed camo motifs.
Carhartt’s winter outerwear takes the most direct inspiration from hardy military gear, though. The brand’s cropped Olten Bomber Jacket is topped with a tall snorkel hood that, when zipped all the way up, sees its fluffy lining reach all the way up to the wearer’s nose. It’s a jacket feature used in the mid-20th century for soldiers in extreme cold conditions.
While other FW25 jackets stick to widely recognised pieces of military design, like cropped bomber jackets or long fur-hooded parkas, this face-obscuring hood sees Carhartt reference more of a deep cut. This is Carhartt dipping its toes into the vast world of military gear nerdom.
It's not that Carhartt WIP never nods to military design in its collections, it's just that we're not used to seeing such a strong focus on all things camo-printed and combat-ready.
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