Rugged Old Salt

Pleats

Let me start this with a caveat, before the opinions start flowing in on how pleats make a man look heavy hipped, old, un-hip - I am heavy. I am not a slim man, and looking slim is not my first priority. I look big and heavy hipped in my photos because that is precisely what I am - 100 odd kilos at 181cms is not slim.

That being said, I remember distinctly some advice that has proven very true in the years since I was given it, as I have gotten bigger, my wardrobe has grown then consolidated in the perpetual motion of building a wardrobe.

My great friend and mentor KS told me often, to look good, a man should look elegant, not forced or stiff, and to do that he must be comfortable. Looking elegant and being uncomfortable rarely goes together. While many can look very good uncomfortable, in clothes that bind and hold firm, to look elegant there should be a relaxed ease in the way a man wears his clothes.

Which brings me to pleats - I have every variation of pleats in my wardrobe, and my standard configuration is two reverse pleats, which pull open a touch a sit a little loose at the waist, a style that Salvatore Ambrosi has made for me and one that I have grown to love.

When commissioning this W.Bill Irish Linen for summer, I opted for a more British trouser - high pinched waist, double forward pleats that sit deep and closed for the most part. And they are comfortable. They feel on like elegant pajamas, the weight of the linen giving it the crispness the full hip and seat needs. I can sit comfortably in them, as the waistband is on my true waist, cutting across my navel, but the excess cloth is where it is needed, at the part of my body that does shift and expand when I sit.

Do I look slim? No - but I blame that on my appetite and my wife’s wonderful cooking. I look, I think, at ease - exactly what I was hoping for.