Comme des Garçons Nylon Balloon Trousers

A balloon trouser is a shape with an engineering problem in it. Volume is easy to create and difficult to stop, and a wide leg that simply falls open at the bottom reads as a mistake rather than as a decision. The answer here is a cuff that buttons: the leg is pleated throughout, which stores the width, and then it is gathered and closed at the ankle, which gives the volume a terminus and makes the whole shape read as intentional from the knee down. The cloth is doing the other half. Heavyweight nylon has body and a dry, papery resistance that holds air inside a shape instead of collapsing around the leg, and it takes a fold and keeps it. The lining is where the thought shows. Cupro is a regenerated cellulosic spun from cotton linter, the short fibers left on the seed after ginning, and it is cool, smooth, and faintly heavier to the hand than a synthetic lining. It is the classic Japanese answer to the lining question, and its job in a trouser like this is precise: a heavyweight nylon shell against skin would drag and would decide where the leg went, and a cupro lining lets the outside keep its shape while the inside slides freely over the body. The two together are why the trouser holds a silhouette and still walks.

We buy very few trousers that are this specific about their shape, and this is one of the ones that earns it. The lining is the part that convinced us, because it is the expensive decision nobody sees.

Volume built out of cloth rather than cut into it is one of Comme des Garçons' oldest positions, and this trouser is the technical version of it rather than the sculptural one.

Shell: one hundred percent nylon, in a heavyweight. Lining: one hundred percent cupro. Made in Japan. Pleated throughout, with a button cuff at the ankle. Color: black.

The width is in the leg and not in the waist, so size for the waist and let the pleats supply the rest. The buttoning cuff means the trouser can be worn closed for the full balloon or opened for a straighter line, and it will look like two different garments depending on which you choose. Heavyweight nylon does not relax across the day the way a natural fiber does, so what it is in the morning is what it is at night.

With the Cutout Sweater over the top, wool against nylon, which is the most direct version. With the Triple-Layer Mesh Tee for a lighter one. Flat shoes: the cuff finishes at the ankle and a heel fights it.

The lining decides this trouser, not the shell. Cupro is a regenerated cellulosic and it loses strength when wet and can water-mark, so this is a garment to have cleaned rather than washed, and one to keep away from heat at every stage. Our care guidance covers linings specifically.

The Pleated Trouser is a wide leg pleated throughout, in polyester. Everything we carry from Comme des Garçons is listed together.