Issey Miyake Monthly Colors March Straight-Leg Pants

The heat-set pleat has a practical consequence that gets less attention than its appearance: the pleats are permanent, so the garment cannot really be creased. Fold it, compress it, leave it in a bag for a week, and it comes out the way it went in, because the only structure it has is structure that was set with heat and will not be dislodged by being sat on. That is what makes this trouser genuinely useful rather than merely handsome. The cut is straight and plain, the pleats are what the house calls easy rather than sharp, and the charcoal grey is a working neutral. March in the Monthly Colors sequence, and one of the more restrained entries in it.

It is the most practical garment in this part of the line and it gives up nothing to be so. A trouser that survives being packed is worth a great deal more than it looks.

The Monthly Colors series runs a colour through the line each month, and this is Issey Miyake's signature pleating in its most straightforward application.

100% polyester, made in Japan, in Charcoal Grey. Pleated, with a straight leg.

Straight through the leg. Pleated cloth compresses and opens, so there is more give than the flat garment shows. Easy pleats rather than sharp ones, which means the leg reads soft rather than formal.

Charcoal is the most useful of the greys and takes black, navy, cream, and brown equally. It is plain enough to sit under a textured top half without competing.

The pleats are heat-set into the polyester and are permanent, so it washes without losing them. Miyake's own instruction is to wash at 30°C or below in a laundry net on a short cycle, or press gently by hand, and never to tumble dry, iron, steam, or dry clean, since the pleats are not heat-resistant. Store it rolled along the direction of the pleats. Our fabric care guide covers polyester and technical cloth.

The Monthly Colors December hoodie is from the same series, and the Fit Pants answer the same travel question in nylon. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.