Quote:
Originally posted by Jack Manfred
So I am looking to buy some pants, and I go into a Banana Republic. From reading this board I know that pleated pants are verboten. So I look at the two styles offered: both plain-front pants with a low rise. Now, the low-rise thing is silly, especially on men, and especially if you just want a pair of pants to wear in a casual office. So I go to the clerk and ask, "Do you have a pair of plain-front pants with a normal rise?" He replies, "Of course," and takes me to the pants section. After peering at the signs on the two stacks of pants, and looking a bit like a yellow lab whose owner has just palmed the tennis ball, he says, "I guess we don't."
Then, in an apparent attempt to reassert his fashion sense, he tells me not to worry, as pleated pants will be returning to stores this very fall, due to customer demand for a more businesslike pant.
What the hell is going on here?
I will not accept the answer that I should just wear suits to work. When I do that for no reason, the other attorneys in my office ask me where I am interviewing. Besides, I've seen some suits without pleats or cuffs, and it just doesn't look right to me. I was sold on the chinos without pleats, but a suit should have cuffs.
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Jack,
Pleated pants are NOT coming back for anyone under 70. Pleated pants or shorts are just shy of being as verboten as jeans shorts, or "jorts" as they're called here in pennsylvania, where colorful locals still wear them.
Pleated pants are ONLY acceptable with suits, and really only because many traditional suitmakers do not offer non-pleated versions. Many portly store clerks who like pleated pants will tell you they are more traditional" or more formal. Those Costanzas are wrong; non-pleated pants are in fact the more classic look. By way of conspicuous example, Sean Connery did not wear pleated pants in Dr. No, nor did JFK. Pleated pants are an invention of the 80s, and geared toward buyers who think they're "slimming." In fact, they actually make people look fatter than they are. For those of us without below-the-belt-stomachs, they leave a strange pouch of fabric which does not go away, no matter how much you have the pants tapered.
When buying pants, consider how pleated pants look on women. You will not see a young, with-it woman wearing pleated pants, because they'll make her look like a marsupial. You'll only see women who've let themselves go to pot wearin "mom pants." This should be an indicator to you to avoid pleated pants.
Hope it helps,
SD
