Gar Lipow : To add information to the conversation, my late father started working on the loading docks when he was 13. Always took pride in dressing stylishly; he kept up with the fashions, skipping those he though did not look good on him.
Mainly it was pride in looking it good -plus pride in his shopping abilities. He always grabbed bargains when he saw them, so he never had to buy anything at full price because he had worn his last one out. He took pride in always being the best dressed guy at work and never paying over five dollars for a shirt.
^^^^^
CB: My anecdotal observations of many male autoworkers duding-up outside of work, makes me wonder whether, naturally, it is because they want to feel completely different than the way they do alienated on the job in work clothes. Work is not "life". One's personal life is what happens outside of work, especially for factory workers. ( See Marx's 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and discussion of alienation, for example).
Recall 1960's students wearing blue jeans as a uniform. Unfortunatley, this "identification" with industrial workers and farmers didn't seem to contribute much to affinity between students and workers. Perhaps because actual industrial workers identified jeans, work clothes, with hated work.