An Illustrated History of Formal Checkered Trousers

[culverwood]

Vanity Fair pictures of checked trousers













I must admit to being partial to wearing black and white houndstooth checked trousers with my morning suit.

[ottovbvs]

This is a great thread. I stuck with the striped pants with my morning suit although actually over the years I've seen plenty of guys in the houndstooth alternative. I've got a couple of pair of odd trousers in fairly loud checks with 2" cuffs. Interestingly I sometimes wear them with a coarse wool, short, faintly Tyrolean jacket very similar to one I saw in a picture here a couple of days ago. It was of Puccini in a row boat. I bought the jacket in Northern Italy years ago and it's a great garment as an alternative to to the sportcoat or blazer.

[Pelham]

Yes, I quite like wearing checked trousers with solid odd coats, mostly in quiet greys but some a little louder. But they're all in that familiar, modern glen-plaid check... if I ever had access to some of these antique checked designs, I might give them a try...

Some of the early incarnations of Doctor Who wore old-style checked trousers, didn't they? There's definitely some cool factor to it, right there.

[ottovbvs]

Yes, I quite like wearing checked trousers with solid odd coats, mostly in quiet greys but some a little louder. But they're all in that familiar, modern glen-plaid check... if I ever had access to some of these antique checked designs, I might give them a try...

Some of the early incarnations of Doctor Who wore old-style checked trousers, didn't they? There's definitely some cool factor to it, right there.

Mine are definitely not vanilla glen plaids, they are quite distinctive checks that would look at home as part of a suit. They have to be worn with a solid jacket though, either the blue sort of fine boiled wool jacket I mention above or a solid, no pattern whatever, tweed. I saw a guy in a cafe a couple of weeks ago, he looked Italian, with all the other stuff like highly polished brown shoes and elaborately tied scarf and he looked very good. I've bought mine OTP at places like Paul Stuart and Bergdorfs in NYC. You just have to keep your eye open.

[March_Hare]

By coincidence, I am wearing today a pair of checked trousers. The trousers are tweed with a tiny check pattern of browns and beiges with a small vertical rectangular overplaid (~2x3cm) in rust. My sportcoat is SB peak lapel in cashmere or very soft lambswool in a just-lighter-than-bottle green (solid beige shirt and brown tie with small woven pink squares scattered) woven small. Whatever allusions it might make, I don't think the effect is particularly formal.

Being young (22) my friends are quite happy to dress in 'tees' and jeans and thus' their sartorial standards are such that they consider it a curiosity that I dress 'smart-casual' all the time. I wear checks because I feel that they are informal yet smart with character - which is what I want from casual dress (I dare not say informal, I'm sure there are many of us who wish for the times when informal denoted a lounge suit).

Yes, I quite like wearing checked trousers with solid odd coats, mostly in quiet greys but some a little louder. But they're all in that familiar, modern glen-plaid check... if I ever had access to some of these antique checked designs, I might give them a try...

Some of the early incarnations of Doctor Who wore old-style checked trousers, didn't they? There's definitely some cool factor to it, right there.

Coupled with my favourite bottle-green blazer (akin to Dopey) I have had the oh so wonderful experience of a child asking her mother if "that man over there is Doctor Who". My preference for a scarf or a cravat in casual attire to a tie probably didn't help either.


p.s. for your gentleman's enjoyment I provide some further inspiration.

[ottovbvs]

As a bit of a sidebar to this discussion there is some fantastic inspiration for a couple of short topcoats in the illustrations from a French tailleur earlier in this thread. If I was a menswear designer there's a host of material you could draw from to produce "different" but contemporary garments. In fact I'm thinking about pulling a print off one and checking out getting something made like it.