They call this fabric “duck”. I don’t know why, but they do. Duck is a canvas fabric made out of cotton, and the way it’s made it’s a lot tougher than, say, denim. And it can be a lot tougher. Apparently duck fabric has a grading system, with the lowest number indicating the heaviest and thickest duck cotton out there; that’s what you’d make sales for a yacht out of. At the upper end of the number scale is the lighter duck, for “light clothing”. Somewhere in the middle falls the duck used to make tough workwear like your Carhartt jackets and these Dickies overalls!
I just got these super-cheaply off eBay, and I like them a lot, even though they’re still really raw, which means they’re still really stiff and scratchy. They’re super comfortable, though (of course they are, they’re overalls!), and a new color in the palette is always nice.
Some more detail photos:
I only have three pairs in this shade of brown duck: these Dickies, a pair of Carhartts, and a pair by Berne. I also have a dark brown pair of duck Carhartts and a pair of black duck Carhartts.
Oh, and apparently it’s called “duck” from the original Dutch work doek, which refers to the fabric the Dutch sailors used for their clothes. The more you know!
Something I never knew!
Another forty years of wear and they’ll be comfy!