Here is what Andy, Himself, says about pleated trousers. I concur.
Dress Trousers: Flat Front or Pleated?
Right before we moved up here, at the onset of the Obama Depression, when few had any money to spend on anything, I was at the shop of the best tailor in our state. He's a displaced Salvadorian aristocrat, with a staff who were turning out a product which was definitely
'nonpareil'. Our Decorator found him, and was qvelling over the quality of the sleeve-lengthening done to accommodate his long Sephardic arms,
"Gloria, the sleeves look better than when they first left Stefano Ricci!". I had growing boys, and a growing husband, whose lats were growing ever more cobra-like, and whose deltoids and traps
kept-on-a-growin', too. Who else could I trust to endlessly refit our hard-won collection of Oxxford, Brioni, and Kiton?
I was in that shop enough to be repeatedly glowered-at by another frequent client, the doubly-bitter former trophy wife of the secretly-Gay scion of a Department store dynasty
(a chain which they'd recently had to sell, naturally -tee hee!). The second time she turned her blonde bunnyrabbit nose up at me, I was
so tempted to ask her if it was
"real or rhino". But I didn't. My daughter might want into the Junior League, soon, and I needed no enemies.
But I digress. One day, my son was being fitted, and I spotted a whole slough of beautiful new bespoke trousers - maybe ten pairs, hanging on a big hook, waiting for pickup.
"I love these triple reverse pleats! And they've got Hollywood Waists! And look at tat 'v' at the back! Who?" The Tailor didn't say who, but as we were leaving, there was a gorgeous new Bentley in the fire lane, and the most important attorney in our whole state was hanging those trousers in his car.
This is a man whose family's ascendancy goes back to the Norman Conquest, who built possibly the most iconic mansion of America's entire Antebellum Period (
http://www.newsouthernview.com/image..._engraving.jpg and http://for-natchez.org/contemporary_.../Longwood6.jpg ), and who were smart enough to keep their mansion and lands through a series of upheavals which left less capable families destitute. His competency and financial acumen have brought him to the point where he now simply analyses and finances large cases for other law firms - basically, a private banker for elite attorneys. His gorgeous, kind, super-smart wife is the former wife of one of the then-richest men in the world.
Pleats - big pleats, and plenty of 'em - are good enough for very stylish men at the very top: rich, powerful, competent men with ancient pedigrees.
As for
us, the upstarts, the men in my family are simply too well-endowed to look decent in flat-fronts. They have
un-aristocratically narrow pelvises, and so
could look good in flat-fronts
(as opposed to more evolved men with wider pelvic bones, who NEED pleats) "If there are cameras running, and I'm wearing flat-fronts, then I'm doing porn. Fully-dressed, and I'm doin' porn.", is how my husband puts it. He
will wear flat fronts
(paired with silk boxers), when he wants to distract others during negotiations. They're so busy trying to sneak peeks
(particularly the menfolk, who really, really, really can't afford to get caught), that they forget to adequately scrutinize where the periods and commas are. DH only has three suits with flat-front trousers, though.
But back to men who NEED pleats, in order to look good. May I introduce the
concept of 'Flou'? Flou is when fabric floats, apart from the body. For us girls, 'flou' can come in the form of a very full skirt with abundant petticoats - or from puffy sleeves
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...e9097b7c88.jpg . For men, 'Flou' is found in a pair of properly-stacking cowboy-pressed jeans, the fabric held away from the body by cowboy boots - implying huge calf muscles. A starched western shirt (a flattering one) provides 'flou', by standing apart from the body, making a man's back and shoulders and biceps look bigger
(thereby making his stomach and pelvis look smaller).
Cargo pants have Flou in abundance. They
minimize the pelvis, by making the legs look bigger. Skinny jeans have no Flou at all, and thus make men's hips look as bulbous and ugly as women's. Flat-front suit pants are nearly as bad.
Different people have different builds. They should be free to dress in cuts appropriate for their own bodies. And that's just as true for men as it is for women.
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