Most of us know the story of how a certain Levi Strauss became famous for being the purveyor of heavy workwear made from indigo cotton twill cloth imported from Nimes, France (‘De Nimes’ = ‘denim’). The late nineteenth century timing was perfect for selling to cowboys, gold miners, frontiersmen and factory workers during the period of spreading colonisation and burgeoning industrialisation in America, and thus the legend was born.
During the mid-fifties, blue jeans made the jump from workwear to part of the ubiquitous teenager uniform thanks to exposure in films like ‘The Wild One’ and ‘Rebel Without A Cause’
I’ve read about original Mods coveting Levi’s shrink-to-fit jeans. I find this slightly at odds with the image of sharply-dressed suited-and-booted Mods dancing in sweaty Soho basements, but given the elitist nature of the leading Faces I suppose I can see that a fair few oneupmanship points could be gained by wearing Levi’s imported from America which were notoriously difficult to come by in England during the austere early sixties. This is depicted in ‘Quadrophenia’ when Jimmy is subjected to an incredulous outburst from his dad when he comes down to watch The Who on ‘Ready Steady Go’ wearing his newly shrunk and still damp jeans!
I have a clear recollection of hanging out in the streets with my group of lads in summer 1980, most of whom had joined the Mod bandwagon by then. My mate Phil said he was bored to death with jeans and was going to stop wearing them, a position which I may not have taken up fully myself but certainly admired. He spent the remainder of the summer wearing Fred Perry polo shirts and v-necks with sta-pressts and desert boots – not a bad look then and now!
I still wear jeans on occasion but currently own only two white Levi’s, two blue Levi’s and two Uniqlos (one pair of which is mothballed for future needs). I also still find myself in occasional agreement with Phil in that jeans can be really boring as a result of their ubiquity. The trend in recent years of wearing new rigid jeans unwashed for countless months to develop unique fade patterns leaves me completely baffled.
As we are hitting the dog days of summer now, aside from being boring it’s just not practical to wear heavy cotton denim in my climate of ninety-degree heat with over ninety percent humidity. Time to consider alternatives.
The first option that comes to mind is chinos. Chinos are also made of cotton of course and can came in a range of weights but it’s not hard to find chinos in a lighter weight than most denim strides and thus more appropriate for warm weather. Also they are readily available – in fact most commonly available – in lighter colours which work better in deflecting heat.
Chinos have their origin in American military uniforms made from Chinese cotton twill which at some point made the transition to civilian wear. The default colours were military too – olive, tan and khaki – to the point that Americans are more likely to refer to chinos as ‘khakis’ regardless of colour.
Chinos are generally light- to medium-weight cotton trousers that are made in twill weave and cut more formally than jeans, with slanted or on-seam side pockets and either jetted or flapped rear pockets – no patches. As such they lie midway on a formality scale between jeans and tailored flannel or worsted trousers, resulting in them being an unfortunate key component of the ‘dreaded business casual’ uniform of office drones the length and breadth of the western world!
Chinos are probably most commonly seen in ‘stone’, ‘putty’ and other off-white variations as shown abovd, along with the military colours mentioned, but they are also available in every colour of the rainbow for the more adventurous. Brighter colours seem to work better in warmer weather and the level of formality can vary from those with smoother-handed cloth and pressed-in creases to those ironed flat and displaying a well-worn patina of frayed hems.
Chinos were very popular in England towards the end of the eighties – there was a subtle fifties revival creeping into style and pop culture (James Dean-esque Nick Kamen in the Levi’s TV ads, Southern Comfort’s ‘Who are you mixing it with?’ cinema ads, etc) and looser-fitting pleated trousers were in evidence, so the chino cotton version was a part of this look and of course Levi’s got in on it with their range of Dockers. It was common to see lads wearing a blazer and chinos – and often even a tie (shock!) at the pub or nightclub. Along with this came the immersive association of chinos with office wear as mentioned above. When suit-and-tie was no longer the default white-collar garb, to avoid the potential minefield of poorly defined ‘business casual’ dress codes, many men played it safe with chinos.
Following the immersion came the inevitable backlash, but expressing a dislike for chinos is like expressing a dislike for jeans. They are as varied as they are common and it shouldn’t be too hard to find a good version. I think chinos can be a useful alternative to the ubiquity of jeans, a notch or two more formal, and as stated they can be very versatile too as long as we pay attention to cut, fit etc and not fall into the trap of the baggy office drone. Navy and black versions start to look tired very quickly as the cotton doesn’t hold dye very well after a few washes. Original colours of khaki, stone, beige and olive aren’t very adventurous. I like them in bolder colours for wear in the summer months, and I never wear them for work
I have a couple of pairs of Levi’s K-1s in their original Crammerton cloth (I liken this to the chino equivalent of desirable Cone Mills denim). The first pair are ‘aviator style’ – quite loose-fitting legs with a high rise …
The second pair has the interesting detail of having the inseams covered …
I have a couple of lightweight pairs from Club Monaco in royal blue and dark burgundy …
One of my favourite pairs is in bright orange from Lacoste …
Staying with bright colours, these red ones are the Clark model from Brooks Brothers. I seem to remember reading that there’s a tradition among yachtsmen that you only wear red trousers on board a yacht if you’ve sailed over the equator. I usually wear these with a dusty navy cotton Brooks Brothers blazer …
Another version are ‘Nantucket Reds’ particularly as worn in the summer in northeastern states. The attraction of these is that they are guaranteed to fade with wear and are worn as a signifier of membership in an elite social strata. Tread with care here!
I have chinos in marine blue, which pair well with a tan cotton blazer …
… and navy blue which I pair with a gold-yellow cotton blazer…
Perhaps among my least adventurous are in medium grey and cream which I commonly wear with my dark blue and mid brown cotton blazers. These two pairs came from Express and have a small percentage of elastase in the fabric mix which gives them a bit of stretch, making them very useful for travel …
I got a gold pair for a bargain in the closing down sale at the Ben Sherman shop on Spring Street in New York City. These have the interesting detail of the outseams being taped to show off when you roll them up …
The final two pairs are in dark slate grey, and a very pale sea green colour which is hard to capture with an iPhone camera – they are a step away from the more common stone version but no less versatile …
It’s understandable that some people may give chinos a wide birth due to the office drone connotation mentioned above. There was also a time here in America when the ‘going out’ uniform of drunken college lads seemed to be denim shirt and off white chinos from which more discerning fellas may also wish to put some distance. Hopefully the above pics provide some evidence for the defence that chinos can be deployed in more imaginative ways than this and should not be discounted from a well-dressed man’s wardrobe.
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