Quote:
Originally posted by Jack Manfred
I have a question about pleats in pants.
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I think it is all marketing, combining in new and interesting ways with (i) the fact that about 70-80% of all American men buy their trousers too tight in the waist and (ii) the fact that men are increasingly being marketed to directly as vanity consumers.
Either pleated or plain-front trousers will look fine on just about any figure - IF THEY FIT PROPERLY. Obviously, that is a big "IF". If the trou are properly fitted, the real question is how the wearer wants them to drape - which depends on fabric, cut of the leg, etc., in addition to how the wearer moves.
I think the current fashion for flat fronts is really driven by the greater interest in mens clothing as "fashion," and therefore something widely shown on svelt beautiful people rather than something your father wears. Given that men are incapable of wearing the right size without serious intervention, we must assume that our prospective pant-wearer is going to get trousers too small. On fit, skinny people, flat-fronts look better when worn too small, because pleats worn too tight do that "flare out" thing. Men see this in ads, and they think that this is the more flattering way to go. (On fatter people, the pleated trousers flaring out in the front are counterballanced by the fact that they don't pull as much in the back - something your fathers might remember.)
It seems to me that the general fattening of America will lead to a pleating backlash, but who knows - American men may prove as susceptible to marketing as the women who think size 16 spandex is fashionable because the stick-figure model looks so good in it.
