The London Lounge

Gentlemen,

As simple question: what are your favourite cloth for odd trousers?

Not only type of cloth, but specific books, too... Like "I like W.Bill Irish linens book -- there is a great selection of colours and the weight is just right for summer. I especially like shades of blue there."

I'm asking because I plan to order trousers by distance -- asking for a few samples to be mailed first. So, knowing what members of LL prefer and recommend would be of great benefit.

Andrey

I had a navy nailhead remnant made up a few years ago, and it works really well with mid-brown and green check\tweed odd jackets.

For the cold days of the year, I prefer flannel, especially Minnis 0300. From a distance, it gives the impression of a light grey cloth while up close, it proves to be a melange of white, black and mid grey. I can wear it with almost anything in my closet.
For summer, I have come to really like Bateman Ogden's "Solano" bunch (not to be confused with Solaro, which is a totally different cloth), which is a blend of linen, cotton and wool. Each fibre really plays out its strengths in this cloth: Cotton makes it wear cool, the linen adds body, weight and texture while the wool adds breathabililty and wrinkle-resistance. This does away with potential fear of folding and packing linen cloth for travel.

Porter and Harding have a few nice casual things. I'm wearing the lighter-weight moleskin today, and they also do a Bedford cord that can be dressed up or down quite easily.

For summer, the W Bill linens are indeed good, as are the Finmerescos-- I'm trying the 3-ply 10oz this summer and shall see how that goes.

For winter, pretty much any of the heavy, wide-wale English corduroys are good for casual wear, and there is, of course, flannel from Smiths, Lesser, or Minnis. From the last supplier, I find the 12oz is much underrated by the Lounge. It doesn't have the lovely marl of the heavier stuff, but its weight lets it press well and be used in rooms that aren't frigid.

In no particular order:

Covert cloths (P&H, W Bill)
Zegna cotton/cashmere corduroy
Tropical gabardines (various UK and Italian mills)
Barbera for H Lesser tropical and 13/14 ounce worsted flannels (no longer in production)
Loro Piano all cotton

Holland & Sherry 14oz whipcord, the mid gray is great.

The Hardy 300 series flannels are great, though I really like the 301 which is a share darker than the 300. Holland & Sherry have close verions which I prefer. Michael also had some 19oz flannel that is bullet proof for trousers.

Harrisons Linen (Mersolair 2674, 345 g) makes a great pair of trousers.

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the answers! Very illuminating.

Andrey

Mr.Alden has it all.
My choice for this Fall/Winter would be RAF flannel FL07 and the Light Gray Donegal.

murtadza

I have just received a swatch of 'Keats' cotton drill from Brisbane Moss, with casual summer trousers in mind. Does anyone have any experience of this cloth? What I like is that it's heavy enough to feel appropriate for casual wear - between 400gsm and 500gsm. The colours still lack much verve but at least there's a good blue in there.

I like whipcord for winter and have a pair of trousers in Dormeuil's 15.5 oz whipcord from, I think, their Casuals book.

For summer, I like Hardy's heavyweight linen, but their colours are pretty conservative.

Whipcord, cavalry twill, covert cloth, all make excellent odd trousers for winter.

How about hopsack? Is it good for trousers?

Andrey

Hopsack for sports jacketing in my opinion.

The LLfl 05 ...!!!

Being in the process of having a 3-piece slight peak lapel bespoke being stitched by Johnathan Behr in Los Angeles I am very interested in this topic and would like to see examples of what other members have done in the past as it pertains to bespoke odd trousers.

In particular I have always had a problem with rtw odd trousers as they disagree with my more athletic bottom half, the suit I recently bespoke is of the plain front varietal however there are darts in both the front and back to allow more room to fore go bunching or rabbit ears on the pockets. If the end result is as expected and the basted fitting shows much promise, I will have him make a few examples of odd trousers which I am anxiously hoping will be a fit that is becoming.

I have seen examples of clothes in the various books at his store, however the weights are in the Southern California varietal 8-9oz weights where I think the heavier weights would give preferred drape. So yes, please keep the examples, experiences coming on this one as I think a few of us here on the board are interested in this topic.