Engineered Garments Sailor Pant

The button flap at the front is the thing. A sailor trouser has no fly: instead a rectangular panel of cloth is buttoned across the front at the corners and drops down to open, which is why the old ones are called broadfalls or fall-fronts. There is a practical origin, since a flap is faster to work with cold wet hands than a row of buttons and less likely to fail, but what it does now is remove the vertical seam that every other trouser has at the centre front. The front becomes a clean panel. It changes the whole read of the garment from the waist down, and there is no other detail on a trouser that does as much.

The cloth is just over half linen, which is enough for the linen to set the character. Linen is a bast fibre, hollow and highly conductive, so it carries heat away from the body faster than anything else that can be woven, and it creases in a way nothing will prevent. Cotton at just under half softens the hand and steadies the cloth. Together they make a trouser that is genuinely cool and does not feel like a tablecloth, which pure linen sometimes does.

Why we selected it

The fall front is a real piece of garment history that almost nobody executes, and in a linen-heavy cloth it makes the summer trouser we could not otherwise find.

Materials and construction

Fifty-two percent linen, forty-eight percent cotton, made in the USA. Straight leg with an adjustable drawstring at the back and a button flap at the front. Colour: Natural.

Fit notes

Straight through the leg. The drawstring at the back means the waist accommodates a range rather than a point, which makes this among the more forgiving trousers in the line. Linen has no give at all, so take the size that lets you sit rather than the one that looks best standing. It will crease from the first hour and soften substantially across a season.

Styling

With the Work Shirt in natural, tucked or not. Under the Andover Jacket in tropical wool, which is the combination that makes this a proper summer outfit rather than a beach one. Natural against olive and natural against indigo are the two.

Care

Wash cool and hang to dry, and press damp if you press at all. Linen improves with every wash, so wash it freely. This is a two-fibre cloth, so treat it as the more delicate of the two would want. Our care guidance for mixed cloths covers the rest.

Related pieces

The same trouser in cotton is the Sailor Pant in olive. The Work Shirt in natural is the shirt in a linen and cotton cloth, the RF Trousers the five-pocket trouser, and the Andover Jacket in tropical wool the jacket cut for heat. There is more on the house on the Engineered Garments designer page. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.