Work trousers in cotton duck in black

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£200.00 — ex VAT

Trousers, wide of leg, made in London with sturdy (14oz) cotton canvas from Lancashire, horn buttons from the Cotswolds, and a sand-cast brass buckle from the West Midlands.

Sizing

If in doubt, ignore what your current trousers say they are, and measure them instead. Lay them out flat and straight, measure from one side of the waistband to the other, right along the top edge, then double. That's your size (not to be confused with your physical waist size).

XS S M L XL
Waist 30 32 34 36 38
Waist cinched 28 30 32 34 36
Front rise 11 11½ 12 12½ 13
Back rise 15¼ 15¾ 16¼ 16¾ 17¼
Thigh 12 12¼ 12½ 12¾ 13
Knee 8¾ 9 9¼ 9½ 9¾
Hem 7 7¼ 7½ 7¾ 8
Inside leg 32 32 32 32 32
Inside leg unhemmed 33½ 33½ 33½ 33½ 33½
The trouble with work trousers is that it sounds, well, workmanlike, but while designed for the everyday, these are anything but. They are five-pocket work trousers made to the standard of classic, tailored dress trousers, but with the fit and function of good, honest, workaday leg-wear.
The trouble with work trousers is that it sounds, well, workmanlike, but while designed for the everyday, these are anything but. They are five-pocket work trousers made to the standard of classic, tailored dress trousers, but with the fit and function of good, honest, workaday leg-wear.
Round the back, meanwhile, there are two further pockets, built into the yoke on left and right sides.
There is a cinch at the back, too, which can be tightened to adjust the fit thanks to a small but solid and heavy brass buckle.
There's a little notch at the waistband, also at the back, made stronger at its base with a bar-tack. The same goes every point of wear and tear, such as at the mouths of all pockets, where the waistband meets the fly, at the base of the crotch, and where the cinch at the back fixes into the seams (to name about eleven).
The buttons here are horn, dark in colour and matte in finish. The trousers have a button fly of three such buttons, as well as two larger ones — the first of which secures the fly-guard, and the second which fastens onto (one of those aspects of trousers with no better name) the waistband extension.
French seams can be found down both sides of the leg. Renownedly durable seams, these, and arduous to sew — especially at the grand junction that is the crotch. Their presence on both seams on the leg means you'd have to do something very dramatic — acrobatic, perhaps, even — for them to wear through.
They are lined to the knee, front and back, with soft, breathable satin. The way this lining is constructed makes the trousers as tidy when turned inside-out as outside-out, as is cut on the selvedge for a flat finish. The lining makes it easy — nay, pleasurable — to slide one's legs up and down and all around.
This is cotton duck — the term "duck" coming from the Dutch word doek, meaning small, short-necked, large-billed waterfowl. In plain, non-Dutch terms, it is a cotton canvas of just-over middling weight, hard and firm when new, soft and ruggedly lived-in with wear, and hard-wearing throughout.

As worn

The gent here has a waist of 33" — a most awkward size, usually, but here he is wearing a size M, and with the belt tightened at the back. They've been shortened, too, so are at least two fingers shorter than the in-seam length of 32".

Makers of

The trousers are made in London by a factory which — since they are so sturdily built, particularly at the seams — specialises in heavy outerwear. Making them, in fact, can be a gruelling task, entailing as it does umpteen more stages than most trousers — at least five of which demand a hammer.
The cloth is sourced from a mill in Lancashire, in north-west England. Cottons have rolled off its line for nearly a century and a half. Industry-leading methods of weaving, dyeing, and finishing — unimproved in decades — along with steadfast adherence to quality, result in some truly first-rate cloth.
The brass hardware is made by a foundry in the West Midlands, which was founded in the 1800s. It is the last such foundry in an area once heaving with them. Its sand-casting method — which sees 940°c molten brass poured by hand from a crucible into sand-made moulds — is ancient and infallible.
The horn buttons are cut, shaped, and polished by the last horn button-maker in Britain. They continue a tradition — re-located a few hundred miles south is all — going back to the 18th century. "It is no easy task," said William Hutton in 1780, "to enumerate the infinite diversity of buttons made in Birmingham."

So they say

The cords are unbelievable; I cannot speak highly enough.

So said a gent who purchased the slim trousers in, yes, corduroy, in July 2017.

I had my tailor hem my slim corduroy trousers, and she was quite astonished by both the material and the quality of construction. I've used her services for years, and such comments are not common at all, so hats off to you guys.

So said a chap in Finland and his tailor (also in Finland) about the slim trousers in heavy corduroy.

The cord trousers arrived today, and are just perfect. How do you keep on finding these amazing fabrics, I wonder?

So pondered a gentleman who bought the slim trousers in navy cord in July 2017.

The umber corduroy slim trousers have been received, the household has awed over the material, and the local tailor will be employed tomorrow to put an extra hole in the cinch and up the hem an inch. Good job, S.E.H Kelly, good job.

Kind words from a gentleman up north at the end of August 2017.

The corduroy trousers arrived today and they are great! They fit as described and the fabric is incredibly soft and comfortable. Thanks again; I'll be wearing these a lot — and I am already debating what my next purchase will be.

So said a chap who bought the slim trousers in black cord in September 2017.