Trouser Talk – Shaping the Leg

In the last Trouser Talk we discussed the tops of your trousers – waist, rise, and front.  Moving down a little, it’s time to talk about the shaping of the leg.  Unlike a canvased jacket, which has some necessary structure, trousers remain a more delicate affair.  Cut is everything.

Most ready-made brands break their trousers down into basic categories, like slim, classic, comfort, etc., but there are a few elements that make up what we might call a trouser’s shape.  Now, in reality, there are a nearly infinite set of proportions and variations that make up a trouser’s shape, but bear with me in finding a middle ground between the tailor’s brain and the store shelf.

Basically, we can say there is the way a trouser hangs off the back waistband/how it accommodates the seat, the shaping of the thigh, and the shaping in the calf.  Three areas of the body, and each of us has a slightly different proportion of one to the next.  The diagram above, from Dockers website, actually does a pretty good job illustrating various configurations.

There are two main ways a trouser can hang over the seat – straight down from the waistband or curved with the shape of the seat.  The first results in what is often called “drape” and is a traditional English style.  The idea here is that you get a completely clean line from waistband to ankle, elongating the leg.  It does however require more cloth in the seat and can look a little funny on more casual trousers like chinos or denim.

It is on these trousers that the other style is recommended.  A word of warning – if you buy them too tight, you will stretch out the seat and it will sag, giving you the dreaded “diaper butt.”  Not a good look for anyone.

Moving down we’ve got the thigh.  Think of the thigh as the place for balancing the waist and the calf.  If you prefer a more tapered trouser, you want to keep the thigh balanced between being too large (making the taper too dramatic) and too slim (making the taper too tight).  If you want a straighter trouser, you need a fuller thigh to accommodate the clean unbroken line from waist to floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tight thighs will cause trousers to wear out extremely quickly, not to mention making them uncomfortable.  The Duke and Dr. Andre Churchwell show off just how elegant a straight-draped trouser can be.

Finally we have the calf.  I’m not talking about the very bottom – that’s for the final installment of Trouser Talk – but instead about the general shape from knee to ankle.  Again, we’ve got two general camps – tapered and straight.  You could have them flair outward, but unless you’re visiting Tommy Nutter in a sartorial seance I can’t recommend this style at all.

Men who have a little belly, prominent posteriors, large thighs, or other protuberances around their middles, should keep things straight, as a narrow bottom will only accentuate the girth higher up.  On the flip side, men of particularly slight stature might want to use a taper to give them some shape and to keep the clothes from wearing them.  Mostly though it’s just a style preference.

And that brings us to the trouser’s opening.

 

Photo of Dr. Churchwell via A Suitable Wardrobe