Workwear for mechanics and garages

A jeans button, a belt buckle, a pocket rivet or a zip puller is enough to scratch paintwork when you lean over a wing or rest against a door. Garage workwear is chosen with covered buttons, zips under a flap and an elasticated waist rather than a belt. Look at the pockets too: a tool sticking out at the thigh scratches as much as a rivet.

Engine oil, grease, brake fluid, fuel: these stains set in the fibre, and a 40 °C wash does not shift them. You need a fabric that copes with repeated hot washing — a poly-cotton of a decent weight rather than a thin cotton — and a colour that ages well: dark grey, navy and black stay presentable once stained. A garment soaked in oil or fuel also catches fire more easily: a saturated outfit is washed or replaced, not kept “for the dirty jobs”.

A coverall closes everything off: no jacket hem trailing over a wing, no bare back when you lean into an engine bay. On the other hand, it is warm in summer and has to be changed entirely for a single stain. Trousers and jacket are replaced separately — the trousers wear out first — and the jacket comes off to go to the counter. When the same person moves between the lift and reception, a two-piece worn over a polo is the most practical.