Engineered Garments Sailor Pant- Olive

A sailor trouser has no fly. In place of one, a rectangular panel is buttoned across the front at the corners and drops open, which is where the old names, broadfall and fall-front, come from. It began as a practical answer to cold wet hands and a garment that had to survive being worked in, and what it does now is purely visual: it removes the centre-front seam that every other trouser has, and the front becomes an uninterrupted panel of cloth. Very little else you can do to a trouser changes as much for as little.

In lightweight cotton rather than a linen blend, this is the plainer and more durable of the two versions this house makes. Cotton takes a dye more deeply and evenly than linen does, which is why olive on a cotton reads as a solid field of colour where olive on a linen breaks up. Straight through the leg, drawstring at the back, and nothing else going on.

Why we selected it

The fall front is worth having and cotton is the version you can wear more often than the linen one. It is the same idea made less precious.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent lightweight cotton, made in the USA. Straight leg with an adjustable drawstring at the back and a button flap at the front. Colour: Olive.

Fit notes

Straight through the leg. The back drawstring means the waist takes a range rather than a point. Cotton has more give than linen and relaxes across a day, then recovers in the wash, so this is the easier of the two Sailor Pants to live in.

Styling

With the Polo Shirt in white, which is the plainest and best reading. With the Loiter Jacket in olive nylon, tonally. Under the Bedford Jacket in red cotton ripstop, where the olive holds the red down.

Care

Wash cool and hang to dry. Olive is a compound dye and moves under strong sun faster than a simple one, so dry it out of direct light. Our cotton care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same trouser in a linen and cotton cloth is the Sailor Pant in linen and cotton. The Bedford Jacket in olive cotton ripstop and the Loiter Jacket in olive nylon are the jackets in this colour, and the Polo Shirt in white is the shirt. There is more on the house on the Engineered Garments designer page. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.