Odd Trousers: What They Are, and When They Beat a Second Suit

An odd pair of trousers is trousers made on their own, without a matching jacket. They start at $450, they are cut and made exactly the way the trousers in a $1,795 suit are, and for a good many men they are the most useful thing we make.

Two questions reach us about them more than any others: how much are trousers on their own, and does “odd” mean something formal. The short answers are $450, and no.

Why they are called odd

Odd is a tailoring word rather than a judgement. It means unpaired. An odd jacket is a jacket worn with trousers it was not cut with — a blazer, a sports coat. Odd trousers are the same idea from the other end: a pair cut and made with no jacket attached to them.

Nothing about the making is unusual. The same pattern drafted from your own measurements, the same hand finishing, the same atelier in Southern Brittany where Max makes every garment that leaves this house. The only difference is that you are commissioning one garment instead of two.

The case for a pair on their own

Most wardrobes fail at the trouser, not the jacket. A jacket is worn over a shirt and spends much of its day on the back of a chair. A trouser takes everything: the sitting, the walking, the car, the whole day's creasing. It is the harder-working half of a suit by some distance.

They are also where the fit goes wrong first, for a simple reason: ready-made trousers are cut to a chart that pairs one waist with one seat and one thigh, and most men are not built to that pairing. Either the waist fits and the seat is slack, or the seat fits and the waist needs a belt pulled hard enough to gather the cloth. A belt is a useful thing; it should not be structural.

A pair drafted from your own pattern settles that. We take around thirty measurements and three photographs — front, side and back — so the way you actually stand is recorded rather than guessed at. On trousers the photographs earn their place more than people expect: seat shape and the way a man carries his weight decide the hang of a leg far more than any tape measure does.

Formal, and distinctly not formal

This is the part that surprises people. Odd trousers are not a formal category. They are the opposite: trousers freed from having to match anything, which means the cloth can be far more interesting than a suiting worsted ever gets to be.

What we are asked for most:

• Grey flannel. The most useful trouser in a man's wardrobe and the one most often missing. Soft, slightly napped, and it makes almost any jacket look considered. Genuinely a December-to-February cloth in Los Angeles, but worth owning for those months alone.
• Cavalry twill and whipcord. Hard-wearing, strongly ridged, holds a crease through anything. The trouser for a man who is rough on clothes.
• Cotton drill and moleskin. Properly casual, worn with a knit and no jacket at all. Moleskin softens beautifully over a few years.
• High-twist worsted. The yarn twisted harder before weaving, which makes the cloth more open. It looks like an ordinary business trouser and wears far cooler — which matters here more than almost anywhere.
• Linen and linen blends. For summer and for the coast. Linen creases; that is the character of it rather than a fault.

We are glad to make a trouser in any of these. There is no quiet preference for the formal end of the range.

The detailing is the whole pleasure of it

With no jacket to defer to, every decision is yours. Pleats or a flat front. Side adjusters or belt loops, or both. Turn-ups or a plain hem, and how deep. Pockets cut on the seam or on the slant. And the rise, which decides more about how a trouser looks than any other measurement and which ready-made clothing almost never lets anyone choose.

None of it costs extra. It is a conversation at the consultation, and usually the part men enjoy most.

A second pair with a suit

If you are already commissioning a suit, consider a second pair of trousers in the same cloth at the same time. The cloth is in the atelier, the pattern is cut, and the trousers are the part that wears out. A suit worn weekly will see its trousers thin at the seat and the inner thigh years before anything happens to the jacket. A spare pair roughly doubles the working life of the whole suit.

It is the least glamorous recommendation we make and the one that saves clients the most money.

What it costs, and how long it takes

Odd trousers are from $450. As with everything we make, the price is set by the cloth and not by the making — the construction is identical at every level, and we do not offer made-to-measure at any price. For the full picture, here is what a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles and why.

Four to six weeks in domestic cloth. Six to eight in imported Italian and English cloth, which takes two to three weeks longer to reach the atelier. Fifty per cent at cloth selection and the balance when you collect. Fittings are unlimited and included, as is a year of complimentary alterations afterwards — which on a trouser is a real benefit, since a waistband is the thing most likely to want moving half an inch a year or two on.

A rush is possible at a twenty-five per cent surcharge. The rest of what we make is set out on the tailoring services page.

Matching trousers to a suit you already own

We will always try, but we would rather be straight about it. If the suit is ours and the cloth is still woven we can usually get very close, though dye lots shift between runs and the original trousers will have faded a little in wear. If the suit came from elsewhere, a true match is unlikely, and a near-match looks worse than an honest contrast.

So our usual advice is not to replace the trousers of a suit at all. Make a trouser that is clearly its own thing and wear the jacket as an odd jacket. It looks deliberate, which is the whole point.

Questions we are often asked

How much are trousers on their own?

From $450, fully bespoke, cut from your own pattern and made by hand in our atelier in France. The price rises with the cloth: Drago from $2,995, Zegna and Holland & Sherry from $3,495 and Loro Piana from $3,995 are suit prices, and a trouser in those cloths is priced from the same cloth book at the consultation.

Can you make casual trousers, or only formal ones?

Both, and casual is the greater part of it. Cotton drill, moleskin, linen and heavy twills are all commissioned as often as suiting cloth. There is nothing about a bespoke trouser that obliges it to be formal.

Do I need a full set of measurements for trousers alone?

Yes, and it is quick. Around thirty measurements head to toe plus three photographs, the same as for a suit, because the pattern is yours and we keep it. Once it exists, a later commission needs only a check of anything that has changed.

How many fittings will a pair of trousers take?

Usually two, counting the consultation. Fittings are unlimited and included, so if a third is wanted there is no charge and no awkwardness about asking.

Are pleats dated?

No. A single forward pleat gives a trouser room through the thigh without adding bulk at the waist, and it hangs better on most men than a flat front does. Flat fronts suit a narrow leg and a slim frame. It is a question of your build and what you intend to wear them with, not of the year.

Should trousers have turn-ups?

A turn-up adds weight at the hem, which helps a trouser hang straight, and it reads slightly more casual. On flannels and twills it looks right; on a formal trouser or a very fine cloth it does not. An inch and three quarters to two inches is the usual depth.

How should I look after them?

Hang them from the hem by the cuffs so the weight falls out of the knee, press rather than clean whenever you can, and give them a day between wears. The full guide to caring for a bespoke garment covers dry cleaning, brushing and storage.

Can you make a jacket later to go with them?

Yes, and that is a sound way to build a wardrobe — a trouser first, then a jacket, then a second trouser. Your pattern is kept, so each commission is easier than the last. How a jacket is built is explained in our piece on full canvas, half canvas and fused construction.

Come and see

The first consultation is an hour and costs nothing. You will meet Robb or Ben — there is nobody else to meet and no sales floor. We will put cloth in your hands, talk through the detailing, and tell you honestly whether a trouser is the right commission or whether your money is better spent elsewhere.

Book a private consultation, or telephone 310-503-3592 and we will find a time. We are at 221 Culver Blvd, Playa del Rey, with free parking in front of the shop and behind it. Appointment only, seven days a week, forty-eight hours' notice. If the drive is the obstacle, we visit homes and offices anywhere in Los Angeles for $300 and bring the full cloth selection with us.

A custom shirt at $295 is the other thing worth knowing about; the two together make a complete outfit. More about how we work is on the bespoke page.