Professional Dungarees

Professional dungarees, the right pair for every trade 🎯

Professional dungarees aren't picked the same way as a weekend pair: they have to take the work, the tools and the long days on your feet. At La Salopette®, we would rather you started from your trade and from how you actually use them than from the fabric name on the label. Here is the collection that matches each job.

A pair of work dungarees gets judged in three places: the stress points (crotch seam, bottom of the bib, pocket bags), the fastenings, which give up long before the cloth does, and the freedom of movement when you are squatting down fifty times a day. Everything else is comfort. Our cuts are built around exactly that: adjustable braces, a bib high enough to protect you without choking you, and real room at the knee.

GSM, the number that actually changes things 🧶

GSM (grams per square metre) is the single most useful figure when you are choosing, and nobody ever bothers to explain it. Our fabrics run from 280 to 320 GSM:

• 280 GSM: softer, breaks in quickly in the wash, comfortable from the very first day. The one to go for if you move about a lot or the workshop gets warm.
• 300 GSM: the middle ground. Dense enough to hold its shape, supple enough never to feel like cardboard.
• 320 GSM: the toughest of the lot. A little stiff at first, then it settles onto your shape after a few washes and lasts noticeably longer everywhere things rub.

Below 250 GSM you have left workwear behind: that is a summer garment. Above 340 it turns uncomfortable the moment you move. That is why we stay inside that bracket.

Work, site and workshop 🛠️

This is what dungarees were invented for. Our work dungarees bring together more than a hundred models in 280 to 320 GSM fabrics, with the pockets and the reinforcements that go with them. When you only need to protect your top half and want your legs completely free, a professional apron often does the job better, at the bench as much as at the stove.

The detail that matters day in, day out: the zip fly, fitted on most of our work models. On a pair of dungarees, a loo break without a zip means undressing from the shoulders down. Look at the metal fastenings rather than plastic ones too, if you clip and unclip your braces several times a day.

Outdoors, hunting and gardening 🌿

For time spent outdoors and long days out, our hunting dungarees lean on muted tones and on cloth that takes brambles without complaining. In the garden as in the kitchen, an apron is usually the more practical answer: have a look at the women's kitchen apron or the men's kitchen apron.

Everyday and style 🧵

Off duty, it all comes down to the fabric you like best: the denim of the denim dungarees, the softness of the corduroy dungarees or the swagger of the vintage dungarees. Finish the look with our accessories: trouser chains, caps and water bottles.

Getting your size right first time 📏

The rule is simple: start from the waist size of the trousers you wear every day, not from your chest measurement. Adjustable braces make up 5 to 8 cm of body shape, so people rarely get the length wrong, almost always the waist. If you are caught between two sizes, take the bigger one: a pair of work dungarees goes over a t-shirt, sometimes over a sweatshirt as well.

We cut from XS to 8XL, and our size guide has a calculator built into it: enter your height and your weight, and it tells you the size to order. Beyond XL, the plus size dungarees are cut for that build, not simply scaled up from a smaller pattern.

Try them, keep them or send them back 🚚

Part of our range leaves our own stock in the south of France: that is Express Delivery, out of the door in 2 to 3 working days. If the size is not right, the exchange is free within 14 days: you keep the pair you have while we send the right size out to you.

One last word on care: wash at 30°C inside out and keep them out of the tumble dryer. Heavy cotton shrinks very little, under 2%, as long as it never sees a hot wash, and the metal fastenings stay in one piece. That is the whole difference between a pair that lasts three seasons and a pair that lasts ten.