Custom Trousers
Trousers
The piece that opens the wardrobe.
Once a client has two suits and a sport coat, the next commission that earns its keep faster than anything else is a flight of separate trousers. A small collection of well-cut trousers pairs into hundreds of combinations with the sport coats, shirts, and shoes the client already owns.
Cloth
The Cloths
We build separate trousers in five fabric families. Each has a job.
Flannel
Mid-weight wool, brushed for a soft hand and a slight surface texture. The cold-weather trouser. Worn with tweed and hopsack sport coats from October through March.
We work primarily in gray flannel, light, medium, and charcoal, because gray flannel pairs with virtually any sport coat color. Weight range: 320-380g. Heavier weights drape more beautifully and hold a crease better.
Gabardine
Tightly woven wool with a smooth surface and excellent drape. Year-round wearable in the mid-weights. Worn with sport coats in warm and shoulder seasons, where flannel would be too heavy.
Color range: stone, taupe, cream, mid-brown, dark olive. Weight range: 240-300g.
Fresco
Open-weave summer wool. Breathes like a window. Holds shape better than linen, takes a crease better than cotton.
A pair of stone fresco trousers worn with a navy hopsack sport coat is one of the most useful combinations in a warm-weather wardrobe. We cut a fair number of these each summer for clients heading to outdoor weddings, garden parties, and DC's worst August afternoons.
Cotton
For casual contexts. Khaki, stone, olive, and white cotton trousers, worn open-collar with a button-down shirt, with a sport coat for an unstructured semi-formal look, or as standalone weekend wear.
Range runs from lightweight tropical cotton (180g) for summer to heavier moleskin and corduroy (340g+) for fall. Cavalry twill sits in the middle and is one of our favorite four-season cotton cloths.
Cavalry twill and cord
The character cloths. Cavalry twill is a sturdy, structured twill weave; corduroy is a ribbed pile weave with a velvety hand. Both have more visual presence than flat-faced wools or cottons.
A pair of corduroy trousers in olive or mustard, worn with a brown tweed sport coat in October, is the kind of combination that telegraphs that the wearer has chosen the outfit with intention.
The make
How Trousers Get Built
Twenty-eight measurements per trouser. The numbers that matter most: rise (decides where the trouser sits on the body); seat shape (how the trouser falls over the seat); thigh (close, mid, or relaxed); knee taper (decides whether the trouser reads as slim, classical, or full); hem opening (decides whether the trouser sits cleanly over the shoe); break (a slight kiss of the shoe is the right answer for most).
Detail choices
Pleats. None, single, or double. We default to flat-front on younger clients and lighter cloths. Pleated cuts are more traditional and work especially well in flannel.
Cuff. Yes or no. Cuffed trousers look more deliberate; uncuffed reads as cleaner. We default to cuffed on flannel and heavier cloths.
Adjusters. Side-adjusters or belt loops. Side-adjusters are the more traditional and refined choice; belt loops are practical.
Lining. Front lining to the knee is standard. Full lining available for heavier wools.
The details, drawn
Seven of the choices you make at the order, as they appear in our design book.
Building a wardrobe
How a Trouser Wardrobe Builds
Most clients commissioning trousers for the first time start with two pieces: a gray flannel (mid-gray or charcoal, mid-weight, worn with the tweed sport coat in winter) and a stone gabardine or cream cotton (light cloth, summer-ready, worn with the navy hopsack or any summer sport coat).
This is the starter trouser capsule. Two pieces, but they pair into a dozen sport-coat-and-trouser combinations across the year.
The third and fourth commissions add character: corduroy or cavalry twill in olive or rust (the piece with personality), and wool fresco in stone, taupe, or pale gray (the summer formal trouser).
By the fifth pair, the trouser wardrobe handles every casual and semi-formal context the client encounters.
Pricing
Pricing
Custom trousers at The Tailored Man start at $395 in the Iniziare collection.
Pricing scales with fabric tier: Iniziare collection at $395; premium cloths (cashmere blends, fine fresco, premium flannel) at $595 and up; specialty cloths (Loro Piana cashmere flannel, premium corduroy, fine cavalry twill) at $750 and up.
Most trouser commissions land between $395 and $695.
Reorders
The pattern from your first pair is saved. Subsequent trousers from the same pattern can be reordered without a new measurement, useful when you've discovered a cloth-and-cut combination you wear constantly and want a second or third pair in different colors.
Reorders typically take five to six weeks instead of the standard seven.
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