The London Lounge

with regards to suits, i have asked this of a number of friends, and there doesn't seem to be any consensus. is there a right or a wrong answer to this question or is it a matter of personal style as to whether one should wear cuffs or no cuffs with plain front suit pants.

1) Do you like cuffs, and
2) Do you prefer plain-front trousers?

Honest answers to both of those should give you a clearer idea of what to do.

Seriously, IMO it's really a question of taste, and I wouldn't be bullied into dropping cuffs if you really want them with plain-fronts.

The only time cuffs are verboten are with formal wear (morning coat, dinner jacket, etc.), and on those trousers, pleats are more traditional.

i love plain front trousers, and i just have this hang up about putting cuffs with plain front pants. i know all the arguments about how cuffs will make your pants fall more neatly, but the OCD in me yearns for a strict observation of the hard and fast rules in the chaos.

it's a fool's hope i know.

May I suggest you check a recent thread with the same subject1 on the Bespoke, Hand-Crafted Suits, Sportcoats and Overcoats forum topic?
If you really want to follow those hard and fast rules, I suppose cuffed plain front trousers would only be appropriate on a country (or informal city) suit. If it's an odd trouser, do as you please. I have a couple of corduroy high waist, plain front trousers with deep turn-ups (4,5 cm) hanging from braces that I like wearing with tweed or other sports jackets. Anyway, I find plain front trousers lose much of their charm as soon as one's stomach is no longer perfectly flat...

Oh, and Concordia, I admire how your diplomatic answer is perfectly consistent with your harmony-bringing nickname
You are so very right: Germanic laws have it that everything is "verboten" unless specifically permitted, whereas under Roman-based law systems (esp. French, Italian) everything is allowed unless specifically prohibited. Perhaps "style" matters (to which I think the question at hand belongs) go by the former set of rules ("hard and fast", as they were defined), while "elegance" is most certainly ruled by the latter, more liberal set of laws, but under the tyranny of Good Taste, Which does not "forbid" with an iron hand, but does censor with an ironic smile any form of eclecticism that doesn't agree with It.
The eyebrows' uncontrolled movement may well be the most accurate "faux pas" detector: whatever makes (a tasteful) someone else's eyebrow rise may well be an elegant trespassing of "style" rules or a promising innovation. But if it causes an involuntary frown...
What if the question were rephrased to offer a context, something like: "How about cuffed, front plain trousers on a light brown corduroy suit with a 3B coat worn with a viyella shirt and Chukka Boots on a late April Sunday afternoon picnic on a river bank?"...