Silver Lake Workwear Trend's Professional Consequences

The young fashionistas of Silver Lake have reached unprecedented levels of nonchalance as the widely popular workwear trend has them wearing reflector vests and hard hats. To their dismay, this has the layman mistaking them for being employed.

Self-described “creative” Elias Katz, 25, was walking through Highland Park wearing a yellow hard hat, corduroy overalls, and a kitchen twine belt when he was roped into building a house with a group of construction workers. He recounts with horror, “they were yelling at me to ‘get your ass over here and mix this grouting.’ The foreman wouldn’t let me leave for the coffee I was gonna have with my writing partner!” He was eventually allowed to leave after a cinder block fell on his foot, his thrifted loafers offering no protection.

This threat has put the Silver Lake community at a standstill between continuing to wear thrifted workwear and risk having to work, or wear thrifted non-workwear and risk looking intentional. The East LA Thrift-Flea Alliance has begun a local PSA campaign encouraging young people to include enough grunge in their wardrobe to avoid catching employment: “Remember, it only takes one job to ruin your mystique for life.”