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Sator
An
Illustrated History of
Formal Checkered Trousers
I always like to imagine what sort of swatches one might find in a
19th century tailor’s shop. I imagine that there would be books
dedicated to fabrics specifically for waistcoats - full of much
colourful material - for that was where a gentleman was allowed to
display his individuality. Alongside that I always imagine to myself
that there would be books dedicated to trousers alone. There would a
large choice of different striped trousers but of greatest interest
to us today, alongside them would be many checks. Of all of these
the hardest to find today is fabric that comes close to the sort of
variety one finds amongst the checkered fabrics one finds on display
in illustrations from the 19th to early 20th century. The variety
seems exhaustive and quite unlike anything one would ever encounter
in contemporary books.
Whereas striped trousers have kept a place in the canon of modern
daytime formal dress, checkered formal trousers have become a rather
rare bird. Perhaps they fell out of favour for looking too formal on
the one hand for daily wear yet too informal to wear with morning
dress. Yet I really do feel that one could yet wear them today as
part of an ensemble for everyday dress - as something that alludes
to the eloquent formality of morning dress - and indeed could well
be worn with a morning coat - but which still would look informal
enough for the workplace matched with a charcoal lounge coat
(perhaps even SB single button with peaked lapels). I doubt that
virtually anybody today would recognise the combination of checkered
formal trousers and lounge suit coat as being in any way akin to
morning dress any way.
Outrageous? Perhaps.
Before passing judgement too quickly I would like to invite you to
look at how elegantly dandyish the look can be.
Checkered trousers first start to appear in fashion illustrations
around the 1830s and remained a fixture of men’s dress for the
remainder of the century and right into the twentieth century.
Rather than start at the beginning I shall start later with the
early 20th century with an illustration dated November 1902. In this
illustration you see what is basically a lounge suit coat worn with
checkered trousers. It is clearly not quite a stroller, not quite
proper morning dress but a step down from that level. In view of a
lack of text one can only imagine that by this time it would have
been a step up in formality from the lounge suit but a considerable
step down in formality from a morning coat. By this time dark
colours dominated men's dress sufficiently that the classic pattern
of a very sombre formal checkered trousering had become well
established:
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Going back in time to 1872 here is a striking example of a formal check. I
really like way the checkered trousers on the gentleman on the left manage
to be both bold and understated all at the one time. Although the plates
are black and white, by this period dark colours dominated by the
increasingly ubiquitous black, demanded that formal trousers worn with a
frock coat as shown here would have needed to be in austere dark colours.
It would seem that that tendency to drabness is being offset by the
particulary bold checkered pattern of the trousers.
Next is an illustration from Il Gionale dei Sarti from August,
1853. The gentleman on the left in the frock coat wears trousers with a
very understated and tasteful formal check. In contrast the trousers of
the gentleman in the frock coat on the right are strikingly bold. Notice
the scale of the checks and unusual change in pattern towards the hems. I
particularly like the contrast between the scale of the checks on the
trousers and the facings of the lapels. Again by this time darker colours
were increasingly become the norm for formal checkered trousers and his
trousers were likely to be in shades of grey and black:
Here is another example of understated checkered trousers from the
Gazette of Fashion, 1850. You have to look a little bit carefully to
see the check. It is clear that patterns of a scale such as this could
only have been made with trousers in mind. Once again you can see how
formal dark coloured checks have become standard:
The following example from Il Gionale dei Sarti September 1850
leaves no doubt in the mind that whoever made these fabrics would have
done so specifically with checkered trousers in mind. Look at the very
tall, thin rectangular pattern designed to make the legs look longer:
The next example is an illustration from 1847. The gentleman wears
trousers with a light base - but more on this later. Notice the threefold
lines which constitute the lines in the check. Again, this design was
meant specifically for trousers:
By way of variation the next couple of examples from the Gazette of
Fashion and Cutting-Room Companion are of some more unusual checkered
patterns. The gentleman in the middle is wearing a rather exuberant tartan
check pattern, which may have even been in a variety of colours. This
illustration is dated October, 1853:
Here is a similar pair of trousers dating from 1860 in a full colour
illustration which shows the bold colours in the check. As in the previous
diagram the type of coat and colourful trousers identify that this would
have been considered acceptable only as half-dress at the time:
And here are a couple of checks which appear either only at the bottom of
the trousers (left) or exclusively on the top and bottom (right). This
illustration is dated May, 1853:
 ]
Another type of checkered trousers popular around the mid-century had a
white or cream coloured base with a bold overcheck. Their appearance in
conjuction with a dress coat suggest these were acceptable with more
formal daytime dress:
Here is another example with a rather striking diamond shaped overcheck
(probably from the 1850s):
Here is a rare illustration of an example dating from the 1840s in
Imperial Russia:
Well, I sincerely hope those of you who enjoy Etutees wonderful essays
based around illustrations from the 1920-30s on the London Lounge enjoyed
this even a small fraction as much. Far from having merely subjected you
to so much baroque bizarreness I hope to have opened your eyes to a lost
world: the tailors of those times really new what they were doing.
Epilogue:
There is one thing I thought I should add to avoid a particular confusion
that inevitably arises with the modern reader, who wonders what all the
fuss is about given how commonplace checkered worsteds and tweeds are in
the modern wardrobe. After all checks such as the Prince of Wales check
are ubiquitous in the modern wardrobe. So it would seem akin to claiming
to have rediscovered the wheel to proclaim the classical formal check to
be somewhat forgotten.
The thing is that these classical formal checks which has been handed down
to us from late Victorian times are a different beast to their modern
informal bretheren, just as formal striped trousers differ from the
ubiquitous stripes on modern suitings.
By way of illustration here are a couple of examples of modern formal
striped trousering out of my own wardrobe:
As you can see in both examples, the colours are sombre and muted, in
shades of black, charcoal and lighter greys. So just as the pinstripes in
your wardrobe are quite different to those found on formal trousers,
formal checks are a completely different beast to those more casual checks
lurking in your wardrobe. Browns, pinks, blues, reds, or yellows may all
feature on your Prince of Wales check but during course of the 19th, the
waistcoat eventually became the only place a man was allowed to show
colour. The colour for neckwear, coats and trousers became very muted by
comparison.
Of course this was not always the case, as earlier on in the 19th century
colours were much more vibrant. Nonetheless the balance found in the
latter 19th century between the boldness of the checks on the one hand and
the sombreness of their colours reached a pinnacle of dandyfied
refinement.
-- Sator, Forum
Member
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