Issey Miyake Pleats Please Thicker Bottoms 2 Pant

The belt loops are the detail worth stopping on. Garments in this line are pleated after they are sewn, by being pressed under heat, and everything attached to the garment has to survive that process and not disturb the pleating around it. That is why these trousers almost always have a plain elastic waist and nothing else. Loops mean extra layers of cloth stitched across the waistband, each of which has to press cleanly, and having them alongside the elastic gives the trouser two quite different characters: worn plain it is soft and easy, and belted it takes a defined waist and reads far more structured. The straight leg keeps the line simple so that choice is the only variable.

Belt loops on a heat-set pleated trouser are unusual and they meaningfully expand what the garment can be. The straight leg is the most versatile cut in the family.

Adding a conventional detail to an unconventional process is a quiet piece of problem-solving from Issey Miyake's studio.

100% polyester, made in Japan, in black. Straight leg, elastic waist, belt loops.

Straight through the leg. The elastic waist means it can be worn without a belt entirely; the loops mean it does not have to be. Pleated cloth opens in wearing.

Belted, it reads as a considered trouser and takes a sharper top half. Unbelted it is as easy as anything in the line. Worth owning for the fact that it is both.

The pleats are heat-set into the polyester and are permanent, so it washes without losing them. Wash at 30°C or below in a laundry net on a short cycle, or press gently by hand, and never tumble dry, iron, steam, or dry clean. Store it rolled along the direction of the pleats. Our fabric care guide covers polyester and technical cloth.

The Thicker Bottoms 2 Pants are the wide-leg creased version and the Thicker Bottom 2 is the cropped horizontally pleated one. The Thicker Bottoms Skirt is the same cloth as a skirt. Everything we carry from Issey Miyake is listed together.