Are you just trying to make actual sense out of fashion? Good luck.

You missed the phase in the 90’s when overalls were cool. Chris Cross gonna make you jump. And wear overalls. I think House of Pain wore them too.

Fashion is, when you buy things that are so ugly that only half a year later you need all things new.

Depending on where you live, it’s absolutely male fashion. My dad wore overalls over a plain flannel almost exclusively.

Generally if women wear something, men will avoid it to not appear affeminate. Increasingly so throughout history as fashion is incorporated into gender roles.

It’s work safety attire. When men wear it it’s “why are you wearing those work clothes” women can wear them because no one will assume they’re work clothes because women don’t (normally/traditionally) do those jobs.

In the same way that men don’t wear suits in a casual setting they don’t wear other work attire in a casual setting.

For a guy, it wasn’t a new fashion. The women are going through pocket overcompensation. Next, they’ll be in JNCO jeans.

Are comfy versions of overalls and jumpsuits even made for men? I just assume manufacturers make men’s work wear and women’s fashion versions and skip out on their counterparts.

I’m going to say that somewhere between guys not wanting to wear their work clothes outside of work, and the outfits being a major symbol of workers during the time the IWW were being demonized (the IWW being the “International Workers of The World” an global socialist workers rights union) - baby clothes became a thing.

Overalls and jumpsuits and softer forms of them are easy to put on babies (due to being one garment)… Cartoons even sometimes depicted them as having a poop-flap at the back for toilet training.

So men were being told not to wear them, babies were wearing them, and they were being used as a political symbol of international communism and “lowly” blue collar work like mining or steel work.

… however women, would later (within our youth obsessed culture) want to look cute and young, and at other points in time, wanted to be seen as viable and capable workers… And women were already in the habit of borrowing fashions from men.

Thus there were cultural rejection factors for men, and cultural attraction factors for women.

A woman can put a tshirt on, some overalls and a scarf around her hair and indicate she is painting her apartment - the look thus had a social broadcasting function “I’m doing labour”. If a man does this, he may well look like a garbage man, or a child in a romper suit. Male labour is now represented by more modern safety equipment, like ear and eye protection, or boots and gloves (perhaps due to harsher forms of work).

So the symbol for women of repaint and repair also transferred to television, and from there, the “look” carried popularity for social signalling, as well as started to become somewhat of a queer aesthetic for self-activated and hence partially “masculinized” women, such as lesbians, activists, hikers or environmentalists, and “independent” women, who are “doing it for themselves”.

It’s hot when women wear clothes that are seen as “men’s clothing”

Follow up question: How are overalls/jumpsuit even remotely practical,especially for women who don’t pee standing up mostly - and especially in the US with its legendary public toilet doors?

As a man I simply don’t get it.

Women look better in them.

I’m guessing it’s because parents also dress their kids in denim overalls (because kids are messy), leading to some kids growing up to experience wearing them. Girls like the “vintage” style of kid’s clothes at least as far as high school, at which point they can become a nostalgic choice.

Not a lot of people wear their uniform as high fashion unless it’s one that carries an inherent prestige

they are absolutely gender neutral clothes for men and women