Pleated Pants for Men: They’re Back, Guys
Long shunned, pleated trousers are being embraced once again by stylish men who find the look both flattering and more forgiving than skinny flat-fronts
By JACOB GALLAGHER With Select Edits
Designer Eunice Lee can still recall the moment in the mid-1990s when her bosses at DKNY’s design studio sent out this message, officially banning pleated pants from their collections. “That comment really stuck with me,” said Ms. Lee, an assistant at the time. And so, when she branched out with her own label, called Unis, in 2000, she maintained a steadfast commitment to flat-fronts. That is until one day three years ago when her friend Eugene Tong, a fashion editor at Details magazine, recommended that she make pleated chinos. She heeded the advice and introduced “the Davis,” a pair of caramel-hued, button-fly chinos with single pleats. At first, men didn’t take to the style, but Ms. Lee was unfazed. “I knew the Davis wasn’t going to sell for a long time,” she said. Lately though, her pleated gamble has started to pay off. “More guys have been asking for them,” she added. “They just want some variety.” Of course, Ms. Lee’s DKNY higher-ups weren’t the only ones to express a squeamish anti-pleats sentiment back in the day. If someone had drawn up a bad-taste blacklist in the aughts, pleats would have sat right at the top, along with fanny packs and socks with sandals. It’s a reputation that stuck. Even now, when most of us think of pleated pants, what comes to mind is probably the bland, barrel-legged khakis that are flapping in the wind outside the local big-box store—the pants of choice for schlubby sitcom patriarchs but not for guys of style. The Davis, and its stylish contemporary pleated cousins—from brands including Tom James envelope-pushing English labels like J.W.Anderson and purveyors of luxury like Hermès—represent a new era for pleated pants. The key difference is a revamped fit that has nothing to do with dumpy couch potatoes but references another piece of produce: the carrot.
“The carrot shape is the new iteration for today. It’s slimmer at the bottom, fuller at the top,” said fashion consultant Nick Wooster, who recently included several pleated-pant iterations in chalk-striped wools and color-blocked flannels in his ongoing series of small-batch collections with Italian brand Lardini. The fit is not quite as triangular as the name suggests; it’s more of a gentle taper to a slim but not skinny hem. Advertisement Still, the silhouette is roomier up top and therefore more comfortable. And here is where I have to hand it to my frumpy uncle. The pleated, tent-sized khakis that he climbs into every day aren’t the least bit flattering. They probably pack in enough extra fabric to clothe a family of five. But I’d be lying if I told you that pleats, even of a more modest variety, aren’t comfortable. There’s a reason why men who prioritize ease over aesthetics have long loved the spacious pleated front: It’s just far more forgiving around your midsection. After years of squeezing oneself into narrow-cut, hip-hugging trousers, the volume that pleats provide can feel like unscrewing a vise. Now, breathe. And it also feels new. Flat fronts may have reigned supreme, but, as with all things in fashion, the pendulum eventually swings the other way. RELATED Men’s Style (Finally) Lets Loose Pleats are “a reaction to everything being so skinny,” said Frank Muytjens, head of men’s designs at J. Crew, who revived the looser look of pleats for his fall 2014 collection and heavily emphasizes them this season, in neat herringbone wools and chunky cotton canvases. “Not every guy wants a skinny pair of jeans or a skinny suit, myself among them. They just want stuff that feels comfortable and not precious.” If pleats feel old-fashioned to you, squint your eyes and you may notice that the carrot shape echoes the longer, “drop” seat and cinch cuffs of jogger pants, which over the past few years have been a trendy style for more progressive street-wise labels like Tim Coppens, Public School and Neil Barrett. The pleat, though, is decidedly classic, with its roots in the rakish styles of the 1940s and ’50s, when men like Fred Astaire and Cary Grant proudly brandished broadly pleated trousers. As such, this current version of pleated pants can be seen as the perfect marriage between a comfort-conscious contemporary shape and a more refined, dressy tradition. ‘After years of squeezing oneself into narrow-cut, hip-hugging trousers, the volume that pleats provide can feel like unscrewing a vise. Now, breathe’ The pleated and tapered look “is a little bit street,” said Rémi de Laquintane, co-founder of the sporty French menswear label Melindagloss, “but still we always use it with very elegant and refined fabrics such as flannel wool or jacquard wool.” Three years ago Mr. de Laquintane and his design partner Mathieu de Ménonville added pleated pants to the Melindagloss arsenal, and he now considers them a signature style, particularly when paired with a double-breasted jacket that’s cut slightly shorter, showcasing the neat pleat lines and the tapered fit beneath the jacket’s straight hem. Melindagloss’s trim single pleats add a clean hit of visual intrigue, unlike the voluminous triple or even quadruple pleats of old, which tend to evoke an unfurled accordion, something I’d rather not wear around my midsection. Mr. Muytjens also sticks to tidy single- and double-pleated designs, which he feels elevate even the simplest outfit without overcomplicating the aesthetic equation. Personally, he likes the clarity of topping pleated trousers with a tonally matched crewneck cashmere sweater, “just to show off the pleat.” After decades of flat-front dominance, it’s only natural for some men to feel skeptical about coming back to the fold. Yet as Unis’s Ms. Lee explained, experiencing the freeing power of pleats for yourself really seals a conversion: “We’ll say to customers, ‘Hey, want to try this other proportion that we have?’ and they’ll try it and be like, ‘Hmm, this actually looks good on me.’
10/31/2015 5:20:00 AM
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