Dickies 874 Work Pant

The 874 is a pair of work trousers in a stiff polyester and cotton twill, cut high at the waist and straight in the leg. The waistband is structured and sits at the natural waist; the seat and thigh are relaxed; the leg falls straight, tapering slightly to the hem, with a pressed crease down the front. The back pockets are welted, the belt loops wide, the seams reinforced, and the cloth has no stretch at all. It comes in plain workaday colours: khaki, black, navy, brown, grey.

Its maker began in Fort Worth, Texas, as the U.S. Overall Company, founded in 1918 by two cousins, C. N. Williamson and E. E. Dickie, who had spent a quarter of a century selling hats across the south-west. In 1922 they and Williamson's son took it over and called it Williamson-Dickie. It made bib overalls for farm and ranch hands, and in the Second World War millions of uniforms. Dickies says it introduced the 874 in 1967, though its European shop dates the trousers to 1960.

Dickies puts the 874's appeal in plain terms: a high-rise structured waistband that stays put, and a rigid, non-stretch twill that softens with wear, made for workers across trades. Today's cloth is also finished to resist wrinkles and stains. On the company's own account the trousers then found other wearers: skateboarders, who valued their toughness and bought them several sizes large for a baggy fit, and rap musicians in the 1990s.

The company has changed hands twice in recent years, sold to VF Corporation in 2017 and to Bluestar Alliance in 2025, and its headquarters has left Fort Worth for California. The trousers have not. Dickies still sells the Original 874 in the same high rise, relaxed seat and rigid 65/35 twill, and describes its fit as the one that has defined the trouser since it was introduced. A pair bought today is cut, and wears, as the company says the first ones did.