Men's Cotton Trousers

Details

Chinos in a 100 percent cotton 3/1 twill, mill-woven at a measured 265 GSM and then garment-washed, which means the finished trouser goes through the wash before it is sold rather than after you buy it. That is where the shrinkage goes, and it is why the inseam you measure on the shelf is the inseam you keep. Three things hide inside a trouser sold as cotton twill. The first is fibre: 65/35 poly-cotton holds a crease better and costs less, and once it is dyed khaki nobody tells it apart, so a great deal of what is sold as a cotton chino is not one. The second is elastane, which now goes into chinos undeclared as a matter of routine, because two percent of it makes a badly cut trouser feel forgiving and nobody has to fix the cut. The third is the waist number itself, which in this market has drifted so far that a trouser labelled 32 routinely measures 34 on a tape, so the customer who trusts the label orders the wrong size and sends it back. That is the single largest cause of a returned trouser and it is a labelling problem, not a fit problem.

• 100 percent cotton, confirmed by FTIR, no polyester and no undeclared elastane
• 265 GSM 3/1 cotton twill, measured on the finished cloth
• Garment-washed after making, so residual shrinkage is under 1.5 percent, ISO 6330
• The waist number is the finished garment waistband in inches, measured flat and doubled, with no vanity added anywhere
• Flat-felled inseam, bar tacks at both pocket mouths, at the fly and on all seven belt loops
• Metal hook and bar with a button at the waist, and a metal zip rather than a nylon coil
• 1.5 in of hem allowance folded inside, so a tailor can let them down instead of you buying a longer size
• Reactive-dyed and azo-free, colourfastness grade 4 to washing and grade 4 dry to rubbing on the ISO 105 grey scale
• There is no elastane at all, so they do not stretch. If you want a stretch chino this is the wrong trouser, and we would rather say that than put two percent in and leave it off the label
• A 265 GSM cotton twill is a three-season trouser in most of India and it is warm in May. The linen trousers on this shelf are the summer answer
• Cotton twill creases behind the knee by the afternoon, which is what cotton does and what no finish removes without formaldehyde