Rare vintage 'trad' buckleback trousers from suit

[Marc Chevalier]

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Most people don't remember this ... but up until the 1960s, makers of 'Ivy League' / 'Trad' clothes --Brooks Brothers, J. Press, Rogers-Peet, Langrock, etc.-- commonly put buckles and straps on the back of its dress trousers. This detail, a holdover from the early 1900s, was once considered "crucial" by the Preppy set. And yet, it's almost impossible to find a vintage pair of trousers with it.


Here's the happy rarity: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-J-P...pt=Vintage_Men_s_Clothing&hash=item45ffe4557b

 

[herringbonekid]

... also found on French work trousers, German military trousers, British work trousers and British tux trousers, rarely on British suit trousers (although the late Hideki Okisaka incorporated it in his Brit-inspired tailored suits).

 

[Marc Chevalier]

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Very true, HK. I should have specified that it's almost impossible to find a vintage post-Edwardian pair of American dress trousers with it.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

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I should have also mentioned that, although these types of American 'trad' trousers often had buckle-backs, they didn't have high 'fishtail' backs.

 

[herringbonekid]

only dress or sport trousers too ?

 

[herringbonekid]

ok... gotcha ! but there were lots of 20s American trousers with the cinch-back and no high back, but then they rarely crop up on ebay.

btw, where's the 'edit post' button gone ??

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Depends on what you mean by sport trousers. In America, they did appear on cotton khakis ('chinos') in the '50s, but those seem to be impossible to find today. (I don't know anyone who's actually come across a vintage pair.) They were also sometimes used on white flannel, linen, seersucker, pincord, moleskin, canvas and corduroy sport or work trousers ... and those are not too difficult to find.


My point is that vintage post-Edwardian dress trousers (from 'trad' American suits) with buckle-backs hardly ever turn up.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

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In America, the cinch-back trouser on most American suits went the way of the dodo in the 1920s. It seems that, after the 'teens, only the traditional American 'trad' makers --the ones we'd now call 'preppy' or perhaps 'Ivy League'-- continued to make suit trousers with cinch backs.