Bring me baggy trousers!

resortes805 · Feb 27, 2014

I wore Ben Davis gorilla cuts all throughout high school in the 1990s.

Also, I've got a whole slew of these for sale in the classified...

Tomasso · Feb 27, 2014

Those are some very well fitted trousers, Resortes.

Edward · Feb 27, 2014

Really nice cut.... shame in the sizes available I'd need a pair for each leg!

vintage.vendeuse · Mar 27, 2014

Are these pants true vintage?

I'm thrown by the fact that they have no suspender buttons, and no sign of ever having had any. The fabric is a very neat coppery-brown and black stripe (photo isn't really true to color), likely a wool. There is a Talon metal zip, slightly dropped belt loops, single-pleat front, and a 14.5" rise. NO labels or markings of any kind, unfortunately. Also, there's a strange long tab of fabric on the inside back of each cuff... I've never seen that before. I'd appreciate opinions on the age of these trousers. Thanks!

Broccoli · Mar 27, 2014

vintage.vendeuse said:
Are these pants true vintage?

Yes. Probably fifties, not earlier.

Flat Foot Floey · Mar 27, 2014

Looks like the fifties rayon pants I bought on ebay last year. Maybe sixties even. They have a good rise but are too tapered for my liking.

vintage.vendeuse · Mar 28, 2014

Thanks, guys, I'm glad I asked here. It's occurred to me that the extra fabric inside the back of the cuffs would be there just to prevent wear, is that so?

Two Types · Mar 28, 2014

I believe so.

Late fifties or 1960s, I would think.

ChrisT · Mar 28, 2014

vintage.vendeuse said:
It's occurred to me that the extra fabric inside the back of the cuffs would be there just to prevent wear, is that so?

Yes it is here for this reason

In Europe we use to have coton ribbon for this

SteveAS · Mar 28, 2014

ChrisT said:
In Europe we use to have cotton ribbon for this

Some European trousers still come with that. In particular, all of my Incotex trousers have had cotton ribbons tucked in one of the pockets, which is for the tailor to install when the trousers are hemmed.

GHT · Jul 5, 2018

Edward said:
Really nice cut.... shame in the sizes available I'd need a pair for each leg!

Not if you had a missus as skilled as mine. I love putting this ensemble together. The hat came from Fabhatrix in Edinburgh, the shoes are bespoke, made by Colin Johnson the shirt and the trousers were made by the fair hand of my talented lady. 22" bottoms, no less.

Tiki Tom · Jul 6, 2018

GHT, those are some fantastic trousers. I would dearly love it if the styles discussed in this thread came back into fashion. As it is, it is impossible to find anything vaguely similar in my size. (I know. I know. That's what tailors are for.) I am disheartened because, around here, even grown men are wearing the skinny, tight trousers that were supposed to have gone away by now. Few can carry it off convincingly.

GHT · Jul 6, 2018

Tiki Tom said:
GHT, those are some fantastic trousers. I would dearly love it if the styles discussed in this thread came back into fashion. As it is, it is impossible to find anything vaguely similar in my size. (I know. I know. That's what tailors are for.) I am disheartened because, around here, even grown men are wearing the skinny, tight trousers that were supposed to have gone away by now. Few can carry it off convincingly.

Firstly. thank you for your kind words, what you say about the skinny tight trousers, has much resonance with Edward's earlier comment.

Edward said:
I sometimes wonder do they remain in vogue among middle-aged men as they can wear a low waist under the stomach and so convince themselves they are a size or two smaller???

Tina, my missus, is currently making me a dark blue pair of baggies, it will be the third pair that she has made for me. The other pair are a rich maroon colour. This is the only photo that I have of them at the moment, unfortunately because I'm facing forward you don't get to appreciate the width of the trouser hems.
That prompts another observation, as Edward said, you can only wear the skinny pants below a big belly and that tends to accentuate the gut all the more, whereas these baggies are high waisted and they actually fit snug over my excess belly.
Here's that maroon pair, look closely behind the hand that's holding the blazer together and you will see how high the waist actually is and how being so high, it detracts the eye away from my excess belly. The second photo is what I team the trousers to when I want to wear a shirt, open neck. The shirt and pants are made for one another, well they would be, when made by the same lady.

Mathematicus · Jul 6, 2018

GHT, I absolutely second your point of view about high rise and wide cut trousers.

A close cut is not naturally meant to be flattering for a stout figure, designers like that or not. The whole story that "slim clothes make you slim" is a completely bogus argument which makes no sense as if you have a prominent stomach and you wear close-cut trousers at your hips, your are actually emphasising the roundness of your belly making your legs to appear thin - who wants to look like a boiler and pipes under it?
The flow of fabric from a high waistline through savvy cut hips will instead conceal the excess, or at least it will not make it stand out in the middle of your body.

A completely different matter must be taken into consideration for those who don't have a prominent stomach at all - having a "waspy" waist due to all of my swimming I can tell for sure. For those people a baggy cut is critical as it needs to be cut very carefully. Hips and thighs can be cut wide but not excessively or they will make the wearer to appear fat-legged and short. The upper area near the waistline needs to be cut close to the body, while the lower part is where the fullness can take place. Also, in my personal point of view, straight cut trousers and a too wide knee look bad on slender figures - but a skinny "hip-hugger" would look worse.

Here's a nice example (from 1945's And then there were none):

GHT · Jul 7, 2018

Mathematicus said:
The whole story that "slim clothes make you slim" is a completely bogus argument which makes no sense as if you have a prominent stomach and you wear close-cut trousers at your hips, your are actually emphasising the roundness of your belly making your legs to appear thin - who wants to look like a boiler and pipes under it?

Have you ever seen a fellow wearing pants so tight that they emphasise his cluster? It's not often that I'm critical of what others wear, but a protruding package is just plain gross, vulgar too.

Stickerino · Mar 5, 2019

I had a pair of 13-button black wool bell bottoms that fit more like wide-legged pants than anything else. I wore them at my belly button and sewed on suspender buttons. I would often wear rough white cotton shirts and an old-fashioned, down home jacket to tie it all together. People told me that I looked like I walked out of the 19th century.

ItsKarl · Mar 14, 2019

Mathematicus said:
GHT, I absolutely second your point of view about high rise and wide cut trousers.

A close cut is not naturally meant to be flattering for a stout figure, designers like that or not. The whole story that "slim clothes make you slim" is a completely bogus argument which makes no sense as if you have a prominent stomach and you wear close-cut trousers at your hips, your are actually emphasising the roundness of your belly making your legs to appear thin - who wants to look like a boiler and pipes under it?

Exactly - but to be fair, I can't recall hearing anyone say slim fits make people appear slimmer. It's more that slim fits emphasise muscle tones in slim and fit bodies - if you're skinny with no muscle tone you can wear slim fit, but it doesn't do anything for you.

The problem - and it really is a problem - is that most retailers carry slim fits almost exclusively. Certainly for shirts, but for suits it's even worse: if you don't want those ridiculous narrow-around-the-ankles abominations (which do not even look good on fit men), you pretty much have to go custom. At least that's the situation over here.

And sure, a slim and muscular body is a healthy ideal to aspire to, but I find the way they stick to and emphasise the muscles to be tacky.
(Of course, if I was part of the target demographic myself, who's to say I wouldn't feel differently.)

Mathematicus · Mar 14, 2019

ItsKarl said:
Exactly - but to be fair, I can't recall hearing anyone say slim fits make people appear slimmer. It's more that slim fits emphasise muscle tones in slim and fit bodies - if you're skinny with no muscle tone you can wear slim fit, but it doesn't do anything for you.

The problem - and it really is a problem - is that most retailers carry slim fits almost exclusively. Certainly for shirts, but for suits it's even worse: if you don't want those ridiculous narrow-around-the-ankles abominations (which do not even look good on fit men), you pretty much have to go custom. At least that's the situation over here.

And sure, a slim and muscular body is a healthy ideal to aspire to, but I find the way they stick to and emphasise the muscles to be tacky.
(Of course, if I was part of the target demographic myself, who's to say I wouldn't feel differently.)

I can't say enough how I agree with these messages again.

The rise in ill fitting clothing that does not conform to body types has to do almost exclusively to the fact that the fashion marked does not invite customers to alter clothes. Until a very recent past, RTW clothing was always on the larger side because it was supposed to be altered to fit the specific needs of the customer.

But nowadays they sell us rubbish that is already too tight to start with, mainly because:
1) they can save A LOT on fabric
2) they don't have to hire alteration staff
3) they don't have to provide space for the tailoring lab
4) they don't have to train their salespeople to judge fit correctly
And they will fool the poor ineducated customer with the tagline "slim is in fashion now", pretending that the only way clothes should fit is how they drape on you off the shelf, which is a solid nonsense.

I am very lean, slim and rather tall for my size and I remember that I have always complained during the early 2000s about the bagginess of clothing found OTR. It is incredible to find that nowadays I keep complaining - like you - that nothing but extremely tight fit is sold in the majority of stores. I mean, I can fit in those clothes but I don't like how they look on me.

GHT · Apr 4, 2019

GHT said:
Tina, my missus, is currently making me a dark blue pair of baggies, it will be the third pair that she has made for me.

The dark blue material wasn't strong enough to create a waistband that didn't bend over, no matter how much reinforcement she used. They are now a work in progress for a pair of summer pants. However, Tina had enough material, a strong, pure wool material, in steel grey, to be able to make my third pair of baggies. The photos are a bit poor but the trousers are exceptional. The pleated front took her forever to make and the centre back of the waist band will sit higher when I get a decent pair of braces/suspenders to hold them up correctly. Here's the result of her labour's matched with an Aquascutum blazer, Simon Cathcart shoes and a hat from Fabhatrix of Edinburgh.

The pattern that Tina used is from Simplicity's retro range. She dramatically altered the the waist area, along with the width of the legs, in order to suit a portly old man rather than the ultra fit athletic guy on the pattern cover. What a talent the lady is.

GHT · Mar 20, 2021

Here's my new sandy coloured baggies that Tina made, the shirt is her handiwork too. And I hear that there's yet another pair in the making. I shall have to start a thread: Show us your Alhoha shirts & baggy pants.

Bring me baggy trousers!

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