Corduroy Pants in the Golden Era?

[Rudie]

In fact, there is a 1930s 3-PC French workwear suit in the SJC pipeline. Unconstructed, with belt back, bellows pockets and a very special waistcoat design. It will be available in corduroy and in vaugan, both washable.

 

[tropicalbob]

Thanks. I'm already envisioning it with a moonstone Fed IV I just ordered. Tropical sun be damned.

 

[Seb Lucas]

It was very hard to get any cords here in the 1980's. I think the 1970's put people off. I saw many a red, brown and fawn cord suit with horrific wide lapels. I bought lots of nice second hand cord blazers at thrift shops for $4 to $6 in the mid 1980's. Sometimes wonderful thick English cord blazers from the 1950's. It's amazing the variety of quality and weight in corduroy fabric.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I guess, my new black cord-trousers is okay. Surely not the first-class cord, because it's softer cord, not the recommended "solid". But feels good. But despite, I'm wearing classic long winter-underpants under it, like I do same on jeans, below +5°C. No experiments.

 

[Dr H]

Wow, this looks like a great company. Do you own some of their clothing?

Over the last few years, I have systematically replaced my formal, work, and casual wardrobes with Old Town and Tin House clothing (Canvey and Selsey caps, long tailed pullover shirts, ties, jackets: Lounge, Fitzrovia, Stanley, Borough, Marshalsea, short double breasted, overall, Medway, Fleet; jerkins, waistcoats (both sleeveless and sleeved), trousers: high rise, Vauxhalls, Dreadnoughts, Plains, stove pipes, Orfords). I can't praise the clothing highly enough - just love it.

 

[Edward]

The Old Town stuff is lovely, once you're certain of your size. I just wish they would do a four pocket waistcoat.... I've always found it odd that they stick so doggedly to the two-pocket, given the general era which inspires their clothing, but I've gathered from a few folks who wear little else that they really aren't prepared to even consider it.

I do foresee buying some of their trousersa at least in future, though - soon as I losed a bit of weight, as they don't cater to larger sizes so much.

The Aero trousers are also beautiful - nice, heavy corduroy, feels like upholstery grade. Again, once I shift the weight I'll be looking into those. (They occasionally do a 44, I think - but it's exactly that, there's no room for vanity sizing there!) I see now they're also doing a slightly cheaper, dirll cotton version, which is attractive.

 

[Evan Everhart]

@David Conwill
I would guess, that on a special evening-event, the coarser cord would be much more elegant and the inconspicuous fine-cord is more for daily use.

I would say that the finer the cord, the more formal the trousers, and that the inverse is also true; the wider the cord; the more casual the trousers (or garment in general).

 

[Stanley Doble]

An unspoken connection - corduroy started as a tough hard wearing material for working men. Many items of working class clothing were adopted by socialists and communists to show solidarity. That is how teachers and intellectuals got involved. In the twenties and thirties corduroy trousers, a turtleneck sweater and leather jacket was practically the uniform of the student radical.

 

[tropicalbob]

It was very hard to get any cords here in the 1980's. I think the 1970's put people off. I saw many a red, brown and fawn cord suit with horrific wide lapels. I bought lots of nice second hand cord blazers at thrift shops for $4 to $6 in the mid 1980's. Sometimes wonderful thick English cord blazers from the 1950's. It's amazing the variety of quality and weight in corduroy fabric.

That's something I haven't thought of in a while. When I was growing up in the '50's and '60's we had beautiful, soft corduroys we wore all winter. Then, in the early '70's I noticed these incredibly cheap, thin, obviously inferior corduroys in all the shops: as I remember, Levi's were one of the main culprits.

 

[Seb Lucas]

An unspoken connection - corduroy started as a tough hard wearing material for working men. Many items of working class clothing were adopted by socialists and communists to show solidarity. That is how teachers and intellectuals got involved. In the twenties and thirties corduroy trousers, a turtleneck sweater and leather jacket was practically the uniform of the student radical.

It wasn't just progressives who word cords. Corduroy was worn by country gentry and game keepers and one reason it passed onto artists and intellectuals was they had less disposable income and wanted hard wearing gear that lasted. But you can never generalize like this. My grandfather wore cords all through the 1920's and 30's he was a prosperous businessman.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I think, the real "widecord" was the typical, bourgois, velvet-like feature of upper-class in the old old days, before big industry brought it to affordable massmarket.

Typical industrial "downgrade" of upper-class fashion, wasn't it?

And Klingon-proven, strong Denim killed it, finally.

 

[Seb Lucas]

That's something I haven't thought of in a while. When I was growing up in the '50's and '60's we had beautiful, soft corduroys we wore all winter. Then, in the early '70's I noticed these incredibly cheap, thin, obviously inferior corduroys in all the shops: as I remember, Levi's were one of the main culprits.

Yeah Levis cords were the pits. I remember picking up a fine wale cord blazer from the early 1960s which was English and as heavy as a leather jacket. Some of that cord material was bullet proof. You hardly ever see that material now.

 

[Edward]

Corduroy on this side of the Atlantic has a long history of being worn for country-casual by the well off, and workwear by the labouring classes. My mother bought us corduroys for much of the eighties when denim was still frowned upon, even in some casual contexts, in God-fearing Northern Ireland. (This an era when some middle-class parents would refuse their offsprings' requests for such 'thug wear' as DM boots, or denim jean jackets to be worn with jeans. For the rare non-uniform day, our school only relaxed the "no denim" rule around 1987.) I shed it by fourteen and never looked back until about seven years ago.

As for telling apart corduroy worn by country toffs and that favoured by urban labourers, it's largely an issue of colour. The latter will have worn grey, black, navy, dark colours that can hide stains. The former classically preferred outlandish shades - bright jewell colours, scarlet, emerald, and so on. I believe there's a place for both in my wardrobe.

 

[Fading Fast]

For a thick, wide-wale cord check these out from J.Peterman http://www.jpeterman.com/item/mpt-2811/100100101/lc-mens-plush-8-wale-cords

I own a pair and love them - they are very soft and comfortable and can be dressed up or down. Also, when in season, they come in several colors.

 

[shadowrider]

Then, in the early '70's I noticed these incredibly cheap, thin, obviously inferior corduroys in all the shops: as I remember, Levi's were one of the main culprits.

The 70s were a sartorial nightmare. Thank God I'm a child of the 80s.

 

[Seb Lucas]

The 70s were a sartorial nightmare. Thank God I'm a child of the 80s.

The 1980's were a sartorial nightmare. Thank God I'm a child of the 1960's.

 

[shadowrider]

The 1980's were a sartorial nightmare. Thank God I'm a child of the 1960's.

That means you did catch the 80s! And 70s!

 

[Trenchfriend]

I'm watching "Stripes" (1981), at the moment. Bill Murray in classic flanneljacket and hazelnut Cord-trousers!

 

[Hal]

Must have been the reason, why Denim killed Cord so fast in West-Germany of the 70s.

Even today, some Germans seem to think that a suit or jeans are the only possible alternatives.

 

[wallypop]

I think the Aero waistband looks wrong, too many fabric layers. Somebody (probably one of the tailors on this board) mentioned it has to do with the construction. Somehow they followed modern standards and folded the seam allowance over the wrong way resulting in this funny looking thick waistband. The waistband would look much better IMO if it was flatter.

Does anyone wear corduroys in the summer? I use to wear OP cord shorts.