Simultaneously the most basic of men's trousers and also one of the most confusing ... To me, anyway. I think because they seemingly come in both casual and smart (not formal) varieties. And the differences aren't all that straightforward, to the untrained eye. I did find this article useful when putting my thoughts and questions together for this post:
So I have quite a few pairs, and I'm going to focus on two in particular, one that I would say falls into the "standard casual" category (double row of stitching down both seams, coarser material, fuller cut, beige, in the pics below) and one pair that are much closer to "dress chinos" (hidden stitching, slimmer cut, clearly made of a finer and smoother material, grey in the pics below).
So I'm interested in wearing both these pairs of trousers in a smart/casual way. From what I can gather, wearing the dark pair with something like an Oxford cloth shirt, tweed sports coat and brown derbies should be fine ... something like this: (ignore length, I haven't had them shortened yet)
But are the lighter pair of trousers too casual to work with the same sort of ensemble?
Or does the fact that the tweed patch pocket jacket and striped Oxford shirt are both in theory pretty casual mean that this is ok?
I actually struggle to think of what would work with the beige trousers - I think because they are very plain looking as well as not-smart - so anythign else they would potentially go with (a plain t-shirt, a plain polo, etc) would result in a very dull and featureless outfit!
So as well as general ideas about wearing these most deceptively perplexing of trousers, I'm interested in:
1 - Feedback on my "smart casual" (dark) chinos outfit - have I found the right level to peg them at?
2 - Ideas for my "casual casual" (light) chinos outfit - I like the look and feel of these trousers but don't have many ideas about how to wear them without looking very boring!
Three Types of Chinos
Khaki chinos are not, as they say, just khaki chinos. Though they’re always casual, they come in different flavors of...
putthison.com
So I have quite a few pairs, and I'm going to focus on two in particular, one that I would say falls into the "standard casual" category (double row of stitching down both seams, coarser material, fuller cut, beige, in the pics below) and one pair that are much closer to "dress chinos" (hidden stitching, slimmer cut, clearly made of a finer and smoother material, grey in the pics below).
So I'm interested in wearing both these pairs of trousers in a smart/casual way. From what I can gather, wearing the dark pair with something like an Oxford cloth shirt, tweed sports coat and brown derbies should be fine ... something like this: (ignore length, I haven't had them shortened yet)
But are the lighter pair of trousers too casual to work with the same sort of ensemble?
Or does the fact that the tweed patch pocket jacket and striped Oxford shirt are both in theory pretty casual mean that this is ok?
I actually struggle to think of what would work with the beige trousers - I think because they are very plain looking as well as not-smart - so anythign else they would potentially go with (a plain t-shirt, a plain polo, etc) would result in a very dull and featureless outfit!
So as well as general ideas about wearing these most deceptively perplexing of trousers, I'm interested in:
1 - Feedback on my "smart casual" (dark) chinos outfit - have I found the right level to peg them at?
2 - Ideas for my "casual casual" (light) chinos outfit - I like the look and feel of these trousers but don't have many ideas about how to wear them without looking very boring!