It’s a nice irony that, for all fashion’s elite associations, some of its most enduring styles come from firmly proletarian stock – none more so than jackets. Put it this way: if this season’s coat-of-your-dreams doesn’t have its roots in military uniform, you can almost certainly trace its ancestry back to the world of manual labour.

Menswear’s growing obsession with salt-of-the-earth workwear means that the humble work jacket has become a suitably industrious cornerstone of the modern male wardrobe. Many styles echo the classic chore coat, which itself derives from traditional French work jackets, with three patch pockets on a tough but lightweight construction (think twill, denim, corduroy or cotton).

Like beanies and work boots, it’s a form of blue-collar style that appeals (again, ironically) to a generation of desk jockeys. With casual dress becoming the norm, even in traditionally stuffy workplaces, the best work jackets can take the place of both blazers and bomber jackets. That’s versatility.

On the casual side, they’ll work as an overshirt in a layered autumn outfit alongside jeans and flannel shirts. And on the dressier side, a number of brands are now selling chore coats with matching trousers as a kind of dressed-down alternative to a suit.

Whichever way you want to wear this working class hero, these are the key styles to look out for.

French Work Jacket

Vetra

The grand-père of work jackets, the French bleu de travail set the boxy, big-pocketed, button-front bar back in the late 1800s. Originally a full set of indigo-dyed overalls for factory-workers – the “working blues” that distinguished those on the shop floor from their white-shirted bosses – it’s the light-yet-sturdy jacket that’s lived on as a casual-wear classic.

Made of a thick, soft cotton known as moleskin, they were tough, washable and easy to repair – indeed, authentic vintage versions almost always sport patches of some kind. Perhaps the most famous French work jacket in fashion belonged to legendary photographer Bill Cunningham: patch pockets stuffed with film rolls, standing out from the fashion-week peacocks in utilitarian bleu.