About
I am retired professor living in Denmark after many years in Northern Norway, have been working with documentation studies. I am an addict to coffee, cafés and last but not least OVERALLS and love to mend them. I have a lovely wife and a wonderful family of sons, daughters in law and 5 lovely grandkids, some of them wearing overalls, feeling very lucky about life, even if I often feel I am not working enough, making foolish comments etc. , so I am sort of an ordinary man wearing bib overalls almost all the time taking the bus, drinking coffee and working on projects, when not blogging with wonderful friends.
57 Comments
leave one →
bibfessor 
Hi,
I live in Ontario,Canada. I have been wearing bib-overalls since I was a kid in the 1970’s!
Here,bib-overalls are fairly commonly worn by people so it hard to understand this strange feeling of embarasment and fear of wearing them as “just another pair of pants” that is heard from people in other countries on the net. I wear them a lot. I wear them to work even.
My favorite brand is IKEDA.
Because I have worn overalls through-out my life, I have many experiences that I can share if you like.
Thank-you for providing this site. I’ll bookmark it and return often!
Hi
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I am right now sitting in Palo Alto in california and here as well it is not that unusual as in Europe, so I really like to be here in California and tomorrow I am going to Mission thrift and buy some “new” overalls, well worn by somebody else and now fitting for me, so let us keep in touch and please share your experience, I am sure we are not the only one who have been wearing for many years
You are not the only one; here is another middle-aged academic with a bib overalls fancy, still using bibs frequently, but more under-cover these days.
I still agonize myself over the continued absence of any overalls revival, having looked in vain for another overalls fashion rage every spring.
Should I just reconcile myself with having enjoyed the overalls for so long, that it is a thing of the past? I have used overalls on and off since 1973, seen the rages come and go; now my old 1995-vintage overalls are getting worn by the year, with no replacement in sight.
Nothing can really thwart my joy of taking on an old Levis or Dickies or Lee or Crocker. And today I realized I was not the last on the planet.
Old Hippie & I are VERY DEAR FRIENDS on Yahoo! & a Number of Sites; ANY FRIEND of HIS is a FRIEND of MINE!!! How do I Join Your Friends’ List on This Site!? I, too, LOVE BIB OVERALLS & Wear Them ALL the TIME!!!!
Also, Andre Gerow & I are DEAR FRIENDS!!!
It’s 2010 (almost 2011) and I’m still here!
Okay. I have to admit that a blog entirely based on the wearing of overalls is one I had not considered. But I like it! As you know, I am a fan of overalls myself.
Ms. Moon
thanks a lot, yes, I am crazy about overalls, nothing to do about it, fortunately !:), but the fantastic thing with blogs is that you are sort of allowed to do what you like ! I also love your blog, I can tell you and will follow it, see you all the best from the North to the south !
Dear fellow overall fan, Thank you so much for visiting my blog (araratacres.blogspot.com) today. Overalls may come and go (stylewise) but they are always first and foremost, my first pick in the closet. Glad to hear there is a stalwart band of brothers (and sisters!…myself included) out there. Keep in touch, as I will be adding your blog to my list. Many blessings from north Texas! ~ liz
I also am a fan of overalls. As a result, my girlfriend has about 20 pairs, I have 35 pairs, some are women’s which suit me well, others are men’s. It is a very tiring fetishism and obsession. Ispend all my time looking after news, new pairs, new pics that I collect. I have a pics collection of about 55 000 pics of people wearing overalls, and most of these pics are clean, some were taken or paper scanned by me. I have sorted them in style groups. Sure the “classical” file is the biggest by far (about 7 000 pics alone).
Hi:
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I have a whole series of embroideries on overalls. I wear overalls to paint and wipe my brushes on them, and now I have begun embroidering truths about the art world on the paint covered overalls. You can see more at
http://www.katekretz.com/truths.html
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katekretz/3008665371/in/set-72157608720690681/
I will be showing them framed behind plexiglas as artwork.
feel free to contact me about the book at kkretz4art@aol.com
I am so happy to have found your blog! I never realized that there were other people out there who shared my fondness of overalls! My mom introduced me to my very first pair when I was 14 (I’m 44 now), and I have loved them ever since! My closet is full of them — most of them bought second-hand, and I wear them almost every day. Overalls are my trademark. I don’t see too many other people wearing them, and sometimes my family is embarrassed by my choice of attire, but I continue to wear them because comfort is key for me. Plus, overalls also speak to my “overall” quirkiness in general! :o)
Thank you for posting a comment on my blog and for talking about overalls! They offer massive comfort and carefree movement with rugged support. Its great to commend them in honor of sustainable connections! (and how nice to have a place to rest your arms while in conversation!) Please feel free to link my site.
Overalls pay the bills and put food on the table at our house, so we LOVE them!! (My husband works for a company that makes overalls.)
Overalls aren’t just for farming. Hubby has a pair of black overalls he wears w/ a tuxedo shirt, bow tie and black tux jacket (or white dinner jacket, depending on the season). And he has a brown duck pair that he used as part of a Halloween contest w/ a Mr Potato Head mask.
Professor, no one is too young for overalls! Key® makes overalls from infant size 9 months to adult size waist 64 inches — I’m sure they make something to fit your grandson.
he he dette var morsomt 🙂
husker deg som en super professor med en artig stil 🙂
skal følge bloggen di!
Hi there Professor,
Thank you for your invitation to post my photos to your flickr group! I am delighted to do so. I also don’t mind giving you permission to post them on your blog if you give me credit and a link back to my flickr page.
I have a photo of me circa 1972-3 (back in my hippie days) wearing overalls in a cornfield. I’ll have to dig that out and post it.
Kind regards,
Roxanne/Roxiepix
Hi Roxanne, thanks a lot, and sure I will give you credit for that ! I’m looking forward to see one of yourself in overalls. We are a growing group of “overalls survivors” keeping the long tradition alive every day ! overall greetings Niels bibfessor
I’m thinking I may have to get myself a pair of overalls! I still have the pair from the ’70s, but I doubt that they would fit, I’m sure they ‘shrunk’ over the years ;-). How would you like me to send you the photos and what size image do you prefer?
Yes, you should do that, get a pair ! you will not regret, I’m sure ! the cheapest and best way to get some new “old” ones are in the thrift stores ! I am buying my own overalls in thrift stores in San Francisco, being so lucky to go there regularly. and if you send them as jpeg files to niels.windfeld.lund@uit.no it will be great and just not too small size ! thanks again, hope to welcome you soon in the overalls community !:) (check out on of my overalls friends, Laury, http://soardreamfrance.typepad.com/)
So glad you found me at: firesidestories.com, ’cause it led me to yer blog, don’tcha know.
And I’m loving it!
Why here in Lake WhaddyathinkImean lots of folks wear overalls. And I wear em’ everyday regardless of what I’m doin’ … broadcasting my homeground radio show “Fireside Stories from Lake W” …or going to an event. In that case, I jest dress it up by wearin’ a frilly blouse… but my OVERALLS stay right on me where they belong.
Some people put balogna in their shoes to remind themselves to see the funnier side of life . As fer ol’ Maybelle, why I wear overalls to keep me loosey goosey relaxed into bein’ myself , don’tcha know.
Here’s what I’m a-wishin’ you overall, Bibprofessor … keep up the good, uh, OVERALLS! … Maybelle
Hi Maybelle, so glad to hear from you. I’m always a bit nervous to make comments being afraid of being viewed as a weird crazy old professor ! having this crazy overalls style, perhaps because here in Scandinavia almost none outside the very strict area of workmen and pregnant women, are wearing them ! so I suppose I am more american than my fellow citizens here, so I am always happy to be in the states ! can I listen to your program online ?
overall love Niels
I am so happy to have found your blog! I never realized that there were other people out there who shared my fondness of overalls! My mom introduced me to my very first pair when I was 14 (I’m 44 now), and I have loved them ever since! My closet is full of them — most of them bought second-hand, and I wear them almost every day. Overalls are my trademark. I don’t see too many other people wearing them, and sometimes my family is embarrassed by my choice of attire, but I continue to wear them because comfort is key for me. Plus, overalls also speak to my “overall” quirkiness in general! )
+1
I love overalls and mostly wear them around the house. I am always barefoot in them. I hope one day to be in a situation in a public place where I can wear overalls and go barefoot in them.
I have just stumbled across you site and thought that you or your followers may be interested in our site we sell every type of imaginable bib overalls around the world.
Let me know any comments you may have about the site, we would love feed back from bib overalls enthusiasts.
David
link to site
http://uk.dungarees-online.com/
Hi, David. Glad to see you offer Key®! (My husband is their CIO)
Hi Kate,
We love Key Industries. we find them to be the best overall quality/price and they do very well for us. All we get it great comments from our customers about them. We like key products so much we are trying to distribute thier other products across Europe.
So glad to find this site as I am just starting a small business making bib overalls. For now, am aiming at women since I’m using florals, stripes, and more feminine fabrics. (Perhaps more masculine overalls to follow?) But what I thought you might be able to help me with is finding clipart or other free images I could use for my website, which I’m just now working on. But I can’t find much about overalls that isn’t Carhartt’s. (If this is an inappropriate question for this blog, please forgive me as I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing.)
I obviously am a big fan of bib 0veralls and starting making them since I couldn’t find them in anything but denim. But it’s been a great adventure and I’m thrilled to find a site devoted to what I love!
Hi JR, thanks for your mail, it sounds interesting project, one of my dearest overalls friends, Laury, se her link here on my blog, she have just got a pair of pink overalls, as an addition to her usual denim overalls to have on for party, I believe many of my female friends love both the unisex overalls, denim, as well as some feminine when they are supposed to dress up, but one of special thing with overalls is somehow that they transgress this gender divide, sorry, you might disagree or I have might misunderstood you, but that’s just my opinion and some of my friends
regarding photos, well, I have a flickr group with overalls photos, but I’m not much into clipart, but check the tumblr site and check for tag overalls ! best bibfessor
You can search Google Images for Free Overall Clipart — surely there will be some thing to choose from. Also, you can upload photos of your overalls to Flickr and use the Picnic photo editing option to make the photos look like drawings or sketches.
Good luck with your new business!
Please don’t misunderstand…I’m all for overalls for everyone. It’s just that making them, I need a model to see how they fit etc and the only person I have handy to try them on is me! So for now, I’m doing overalls for women. Maybe Phase II will be more unisex….
Hi JR, sorry, I misunderstood, yes, sure I believe more diversity in overalls will be great and if one can have both unisex and some more feminine and some more masculine dress like it will sure be great
David and Kate
Key are one of my favorites and it would be great to see more of them in this part of the world, Denmark/Norway ! and I have put a link to your website David ! and Kate also toy Key of course !
we will have norwegian version of our site launched in the next 2 months so keep your eye out. It is currently being translated for us.
What words would you use to describe bib overalls in Norwegian ?
Hi David
In Norway it is called “snekkerbukser” literally translated as carpenter pants ! almost the same in Sweden, “snickarbyksar” (I think !) but in Denmark, it is just called overalls (not bib!!)
Niels
Hey, hows everyone at this excellent wonderful community doing today? Happy I can be a component of the online community and I look onward to lots of fantastic encounters here!
Love your blogs! Fellow Bibbers unite!
any one know where I can buy hawaiian bib overalls for men size XL?
no idea ! didn’t knew they existed !
I also wear my overalls all the time….i have come across you “name” many times when looking for new overalls blogs or chat rooms and I even think I saw a pic of you once in a cafe with others wearing overalls. I live in the United States and im glad to hear of sombody else who might wear overalls as much as I do. I currently have 40+ pairs ranging from the “classic” style to a more “fashionable” style. I will always be on the lookout for more to add to my collection
I also wear em all the time as well. So much so that I’ve worn literally nothing else since around September of last year! I’m considering giving all my Khakis & Khaki Shorts away to the local Interfaith Ministie’s Charity Chapter. So someone who can actually use them will get them. As I suppose I no longer have any use for them, period!
As far as my Great Central Valley’s Notoriously Hotter n’ Hell Sumers. I guess I’ll have to sacrafice one pair of my White Carhartt Painter Bibs Ovies, One Pair of my Black Carhartts, a pair of my faded Carhartt Ducks, a pair of my White Carhartt Carpenter’s, One Pair of Black Roundhouses, a pair of my Dark Blue Key Imperials, and a pair of ( gasp $ 90.00 ) of my Carhartt Camo bib’s to the Dry Cleaner’s to be shortened to the knees and hemmed properly.
As there are no longer anyone who manufacturers Overall Shorts for Men! Which is very disappointing!
All the Skater Boys when I was in High School and 8th Grade wore the Guess Shortalls without underwear and a Baseball Cap of their favorite College or Pro team backwards. As a fellow in my World History Class proved on multiple occassions by flashing himself to an equally dirty minded girl. Whom he had a child with well before graduation in our Senior Year…..and four or five more after Graduation!
Wear mine all the time. Started during my youth in the 70s. My favorites are Key, Carhartt, and Dickies. Nothing like a chambray or flannel shirt with bib overalls in the cool months. JohnS Sonoma Ca.
Hey Friend! I am nominating you for The WordPress Family Award! I wrote a nice little blurb about your great blog and how awesome it has been to meet fellow bib-lovers! You can check it out here:
Feel free to nominate others that you think are deserving and I will talk to you again soon!
Hi Patricia, thanks a lot, sorry for being late in answering, but I have been busy with family, but I’m very honoured by being nominated by you and it just encourage me to continue to wear overalls and tell the world how fantastic it is to live a life in overalls all the time, almost 🙂
hello! i’m a chicago-based journalist writing a story about overalls. would very much like to talk to you about your love of them. since you’re in norway, would have to do it by email. could not find a contact for you on the blog. could you please drop me a line? my email is rotenberk310@gmail.com
hello! i’m a chicago-based journalist writing a story about overalls. would very much like to talk to you about your love of them. since you’re in norway, would have to do it by email. could not find a contact for you on the blog. could you please drop me a line? my email is rotenberk310@gmail.com
Hi My name surname is Overall and I find wearing overalls a practical garment… good in the garden and section maintenance. My forebears were from England … the Overall forebears… Simon Overall of New Zealand.
Hi, also from Canada. Was in the Prato Costume Museum near Florence Italy a few years back and discovered a costume designer who went by the name of Thayaht. He was one of the original Italian Futurists and worked for a number of years with Madeline Vionnet, the creator of the bias cut (stay with me). I was looking at a his original designs when I came across a whole series on what he called the “Tuta”. I’m pretty sure these were drawings created just before or just after WWI. The Tuta was a one piece coverall – no bib but looking very much like early versions of overalls and meant to be worn as a “work suit”. I’m wondering if Thayaht (his real name was Ernesto Michahelles) deserves credit for at least a chapter in the creation of overalls? What do you think?
Hi Richard, interesting, interesting, I see that tuta is translated to coveralls, which I also wear myself ! here on the West coast in Denmark it is called the fishermen tuxedo !:) but Thayaht can surely be considered an overall artist ! thanks !
I had to wear bib overalls all the time as a kid growing up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin in the 1960’s. As I got older in school, none of my friends on farms wore them so I felt they were “old fashioned” and refused to wear them. When I retired at age 58,, for the heck of it I purchased a Key Bib Overall to work around the yard and in my woodworking shop. I fell in love with the comfort and roominess of the overalls and took all of my jeans to Goodwill. I have been retired now for 5 years and wear nothing but bib overalls for work around the home, yard, and even going to town. When it’s hot outside, I wear them without a shirt. My favorites in bib overalls are Round House and Key. I especially like the Key bib overalls for their front snap pocket as it securely holds a cell phone without fear of losing it. If only my father could see me now as in my teens I denounced wearing bib overalls which he wore on the farm on a daily basis. I love my bib overalls for their comfort and am not ashamed to wear them in public. I am not out to make a fashion statement so if anyone doesn’t like them when I’m wearing them, I say look the other way.
thanks TJ, I’m doing the same thing, wearing them all over over all, to concerts, to meetings, conferences as well as home and to family parties, so much that people ask where are my overalls if I by accident don’t wear them !:) but I also like the overall fashion in an artistic way, having collaboration with a textile artist who turn some of my overalls into wearable art, so I’m both making a fashion statement in my own way and wear them for comfort, and my neighbours are farmers and wear them all the time ! over all greetings from Denmark
Greetings to you in Denmark bibprofessor! My wife is not iinto patching my overalls so when they get to that point, she recycles them on her loom. My wife makes rag rugs and likes the denim from the overalls for making denim rag rugs. I’m wearing overalls proudly in Wisconsin/USA
thanks TJ, great idea to make rugs out of the overalls, having a special kind of patina ! there are many good ways of using the old overalls, my wife loves to make the patches in a kind of artistic way, so it is not a burden, but an artistic project, just like your wife’s rug project ! overall greetings Niels
Just reading about your health situation. Glad to see you are making progress. Enjoying your blog and wishing you and Bodil the best.
Thanks Michael , it helps to have great friends like you and John, greetings from the little farmhouse 🙂
Hi Bibprofessor,
I live in Modesto California. Surprisingly not that many people wear overalls here even though it is dab in the middle of ag country. I started recently wearing them, much to the displeasure of my wife and kids. I find them so comfortable that I’ll take the heckling with smile on my face over being uncomfortable. I just purchased my fourth pair of overalls, I love them and rotate them on and off. I’m an educator as well, I teach Middle School arts and media. Some of my students think I look like Mario from Mario Brothers, I’m good with that. I’ve notice overalls being trendy in Japan recently. The “vintage American” work-ware is gaining momentum in Japan. People say I look like a hipster, I’m really not. I just like overalls and denim shirts. Like many here, I’ve been hoping that overalls would make a resurgence in the American fashion world, like in Japan. However, I think that its so farm looking to most people; and from what Ive been told, the association of wearing overalls to farming, might be just too unhip for most. I was pleasantly surprised to find your blog and the love of overalls found in your writing and photos. Keep up the good work.
Hi Samuel, thanks a lot for your comments, as you probably have read I found my overalls in SF 17 years ago, and since then lived in them and now I’m sort of known as the overalls guy 🙂 it is such a joy to know other overalls people and yes, it’s fun to see how the overalls are so popular in Japan, on instagram (@dokprofessor) I have many Japanese friends ! and talking about hipster, yes my sons have said I’m a hipster, well, I also just live in overalls ! again thanks , greetings from Denmark, Niels
I wanted to share a song I wrote about overalls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bt8qzxB4C0