# Where do you wear your pants?



## familyman (Sep 9, 2005)

Recent threads have gotten me to thinking about where one wears their pants. Yes, I know we all wear them on our legs, but how far up your body to they go? The basic measurement I've learned is fingers below the belly button, no tape measures required. Just put your hand on your navel and see where you pants lie in relation. I'm a 3 finger man usually. My Bills M1's are closer to a 1 finger fit which I'm still getting used to. My Levis are closer to a full 4 fingers in the classic jeans fashion. I think I might someday go as high as right at my belly button for properly tailored pants with a suit but I'm not there yet. 
So where do you wear your pants?


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## jmorgan32 (Apr 30, 2005)

familyman said:


> Recent threads have gotten me to thinking about where one wears their pants. Yes, I know we all wear them on our legs, but how far up your body to they go? The basic measurement I've learned is fingers below the belly button, no tape measures required. Just put your hand on your navel and see where you pants lie in relation. I'm a 3 finger man usually. My Bills M1's are closer to a 1 finger fit which I'm still getting used to. My Levis are closer to a full 4 fingers in the classic jeans fashion. I think I might someday go as high as right at my belly button for properly tailored pants with a suit but I'm not there yet.
> So where do you wear your pants?


3 fingers below.......................I never knew about the "women looking at men's rear ends" until late in my 30's...........my ex wife came clean about it.......she told me one day that older men who wear their pants real high tend to make their rear ends "look very bad."

Now,,,,,,,,,,,with that,,,,,,,,you are happily married.......I am single, and somewhat of a bar rat....................so.........if you like em higher, and your wife is honest with you and says they look good go for it!

Just my 2 cents..................( I will say, I don't believe we dress only to please ourselves.............If we are honest, we do dress to look appealing to the fairer sex.)

Joe


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## Coolidge24 (Mar 21, 2005)

Standing up right now in my L.L. Bean chinos, I see that the top of my pants is immediately beneath my navel. Navel ends, pants begin. Looks like maybe one finger, maybe 3/4 of a finger.

I think that this is the right place to wear them. It's the old men one sees wearing them at the pectoral level that is off putting, one would think.

If I owned jeans I suppose I'd wear them lower but I don't. And I sure won't wear khakis at the waist, even if the fairer sex prefers this. Sartorially, I have always thought the trad look was that look for which it is most defensible to say "take me as I am" with an undertone of "be glad you bagged someone who dresses so reasonably"


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Familyman:

For a minute there you had me worried...thought you were talking about positioning three fingers, vertically, on top of one another. That put the waistband of my pants right about mid-thigh...it wasn't pretty!

Actually most of my pants come to within two fingers (about 1") of my belly button. A few pair of my jeans may come closer to three fingers.


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## jamgood (Feb 8, 2006)

*Hip huggers on the trad forum?!*

Natural waist, about an inch above the navel. Trouser waistband rides just above the hip bone, which is connceted to the thigh bone, which.........

I thought this was the trad forum?


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## StevenRocks (May 24, 2005)

I wear mine kind of low, but I really don't like mine above the navel; looks old-looking. I try to avoid pleated pants because of this; they look too voluminus for my taste worn low.


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## SmartDresser (Jan 10, 2005)

I try to keep mine up, covering my navel, but they keep coming down. Why is that? Do I need a tailor? I am thin, about a 32 waist.


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## Vladimir Berkov (Apr 19, 2005)

For khakis, right at the navel or just above. I have some vintage pants which are higher, at least an inch or two above the navel.

It has always amused me the scorn with which people my age (23) look upon wearing pants at the natural waist. Unless you are very tall, or have really long legs and a very short torso, pants worn on the hips like jeans make you look much shorter. Plus it looks poor with a jacket, due to the expanse of shirt showing between the waistband and the buttoned area of the jacket.

If you are in reasonably decent shape, there is no reason not to wear pants high at the natural waist. Sure, old people can make it look bad, but usually that is because they are shoehorned into light blue polyester pants which may have fit 30 years and 30 pounds ago.


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## Topsider (Jul 9, 2005)

SmartDresser said:


> I try to keep mine up, covering my navel, but they keep coming down. Why is that? Do I need a tailor? I am thin, about a 32 waist.


Maybe a belt? 

Kidding...maybe tighten it a little, though. You could always wear suspenders (a.k.a. "braces"), as they do a superb job keeping one's pants in the correct place. Of course, you can't wear those with everything (unless you want to look like my grandfather.)


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## Topsider (Jul 9, 2005)

jamgood said:


> Natural waist, about an inch above the navel. Trouser waistband rides just above the hip bone, which is connceted to the thigh bone, which.........
> 
> I thought this was the trad forum?


I think you mean the iliac crest, which is connected to the femur via the acetabulum...but, I digress. 

I like 'em worn up high, as well...but not too high. I have one pair of Bill's M1s that make me look like an old man. I prefer the M2s, which fit at the natural waist and tend to stay put when worn.


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## guitone (Mar 20, 2005)

There are many folks that where them way below their navel:icon_smile_wink: I have a friend that tells me as long as his pants size is no more than 38 inch waist that he is ok, but he wears his pants way below his very large stomache. So his measurements would probably be in hands. Anyway, that is the cowboy look, jeans and big buckle. For me I wear my dress pants below my navel, not sure how many fingers but at probably around one.


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## Rich (Jul 10, 2005)

Vladimir Berkov said:


> If you are in reasonably decent shape, there is no reason not to wear pants high at the natural waist. Sure, old people can make it look bad, but usually that is because they are shoehorned into light blue polyester pants which may have fit 30 years and 30 pounds ago.


Last night I watched North by Northwest yet again - CG wears his trousers at natural waist and looks perfect, of course. Posture, confidence...


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Dress slacks and khakis right at the navel. If you are wearing bespoke or MTM, that is right where the tailor suggests you have them fit for, why not listen to the expert? Kilt of course, goes much higher at the "natural waist" about 1/2 way between navel and diaphragm. Nothing worse than a low slung kilt, it becomes a skirt at that point IMO!

If your stomach is not totally flat, wearing your trousers (or kilt) lower merely "frames" your paunch, why do people do this? Clothes should help accent your strong physical features and help mask your weak ones IMO.

Warmest regards


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## rsmeyer (May 14, 2006)

Dress pants: A little above the navel. They should be at or just above the level of the suit or sport coat closure button, so belt and shirt do not show when coat is buttoned.


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## A.Squire (Apr 5, 2006)

Doesn't seem to matter the level I place them in the am, my pants always end up at the same place, the "dunlap" line.

Allen


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## lovemeparis (May 20, 2006)

familyman said:


> Recent threads have gotten me to thinking about where one wears their pants. Just put your hand on your navel and see where you pants lie in relation. I'm a 3 finger man usually. My Bills M1's are closer to a 1 finger fit which I'm still getting used to. My Levis are closer to a full 4 fingers in the classic jeans fashion.
> 
> So where do you wear your pants?


gosh...do u always go to the gentlemen's room?:icon_pale:

humm...I wonder why 

...from paris


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## familyman (Sep 9, 2005)

lovemeparis said:


> gosh...do u always go to the gentlemen's room?:icon_pale:
> 
> humm...I wonder why
> 
> ...from paris


I don't get it.


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## mpcsb (Jan 1, 2005)

familyman said:


> I don't get it.


You and me both. ?


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## Frank aka The Minotaur (Nov 12, 2004)

Mine sit just about at my navel. That's where they feel and look best on me.


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## NewYorkBuck (May 6, 2004)

Unless they are British fish tail suspender pants (which are right at the navel), Id say 3 fingers below. I think any higher starts to make me look like Lou Costello.


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## Stuttjukken (Jan 14, 2006)

I wear all my trousers on low rise, just under my fat and big stomach. It´s comfortable for me, and I seldom need to wear belts. (Trouser waist is 44"-46").


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