3Sixteen Cargo Pant – Charcoal HBT

The M-51 is the cargo pant everything else is a copy of, and most copies keep the pockets and lose the proportions. 3Sixteen has done it the other way round. The rise is high and the leg is wide and straight through to a generous opening, which is how the original was cut and why it reads as a trouser rather than as sportswear. The cargo pockets sit where they can be reached rather than where they photograph well.

The one modern addition is the pair of elastic inserts at the sides of the waistband. They give the waist about an inch of movement in either direction, which sounds minor and is not: it is the difference between a military-cut trouser you wear on a specific day and one you wear on any of them. Everything else is period-correct and deliberately so.

The cloth and the colour

Charcoal is the version we would point a first-time buyer to, and the fabric is why. Herringbone twill is a broken twill that reverses direction at intervals, so the weave reads as a fine chevron in raking light and as a solid at any distance. Pigment dyeing puts the colour on the surface of the yarn rather than driving it into the core, so the charcoal starts wearing away where the cloth flexes almost immediately. The stonewash accelerates that and softens the hand at the same time. The result is a trouser that arrives looking like it has been owned, which is not something we usually say approvingly, except that here the ageing is real rather than printed on.

We are wary of cargo pants, because most of them are a costume. This one survives because the drafting is right and the fabric is honest, and because it does the thing our customers actually want from a trouser that is not denim: it is easy, it is roomy, and it does not look like an outdoor product.

One hundred percent cotton, pigment-dyed herringbone twill with a stonewashed finish, made in India. Cargo pockets, elasticated side inserts at the waist, wide straight leg.

Identical to the olive: high rise, roomy through the top block, wide to the hem, with about an inch of give at the waist from the side inserts. Stonewashed and pre-softened, so there is no break-in and little shrinkage. Take your usual size.

Charcoal is the more urban of the two and the easier one to wear with black. With the BDU Jacket in black it reads as a considered outfit rather than surplus. With the alpaca crewneck in Oak, brown over charcoal, which is better than it sounds.

Wash cool and hang to dry. Pigment dye is meant to release with wear, so accept a little colour in the first wash and do not wash it with anything pale. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

The same trouser in stonewashed olive cotton is the Cargo Pant in Olive. For the same herringbone twill in midnight, the Fatigue Pant in Midnight Washed HBT. It is worn under the BDU Jacket, and the Service Pant is the plainer alternative. More on the house is on our 3Sixteen designer page, and everything we currently hold from it is listed under 3Sixteen.