Engineered Garments FW24 Andover Pant

A double hemline is two turns of cloth at the bottom of the trouser instead of one, and it is a detail almost nobody draws any more because it costs cloth and labour and shows only when you look. What it buys is weight. A doubled hem is heavier than a single one, and weight at the bottom of a trouser leg is what makes the leg hang straight and swing correctly instead of fluttering, which is the same principle behind a turn-up. On a tapered leg, where there is less cloth to do the work, it matters more.

Worsted gaberdine is the right cloth to spend that detail on. It is a steep twill woven from hard-spun worsted yarn and then compacted until the face closes almost entirely, which is why it holds a crease, resists shine longer than a soft woollen, and takes years of wear without going baggy at the knee. It was engineered in the nineteenth century to shed rain without rubber, and everything about it that made it a good raincoat makes it a good trouser: dense, dry to the hand, and structurally unwilling to deform.

The tailored trouser that is not part of a suit is a genuinely hard thing to buy, and a worsted gaberdine one that tapers is harder. This is that, from a house that does not otherwise do tailoring.

Andover is the name Engineered Garments gives its tailored work, and it runs across a jacket and a trouser in the same cloth.

One hundred percent wool in a charcoal worsted gaberdine, made in the USA. Tapered silhouette with a double hemline. Colour: Charcoal.

Tapered through the leg, so it narrows from the knee down and finishes close. Worsted gaberdine has almost no give, which means you should take the size you can sit down in rather than the one that looks best standing. The doubled hem gives the leg weight, so it hangs straight and breaks cleanly. It holds a press well and holds it for a long time.

With the Andover Jacket in the same charcoal gaberdine, which is how the cloth was cut. Or alone, with the Rounded Collar Shirt and a knit, which is the way a charcoal worsted trouser earns its keep.

Hang it by the cuffs and brush it rather than cleaning it often. Use a cleaner when it needs one and press through a cloth, never hot on the face: worsted glazes, and glaze does not come out. Our wool care guidance covers the rest.

The Andover Jacket in charcoal worsted gaberdine is cut from the same cloth. In an open summer wool, the Andover Jacket in tropical wool. The Officer Pant is the wider military trouser, and the Rounded Collar Shirt the shirt above both. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.