Kuon Aizome Slub Wide Trouser

A slub is a deliberate fault in a yarn: the spinning is allowed to run thick and thin along its length instead of being drawn to one diameter. Woven up, that gives a cloth with visible irregularity in it, and the irregularity is structural rather than printed, so it does not wear off and it does not sit on top of anything. It also changes how the cloth takes dye, because a thick section holds more than a thin one, which is why a slub cotton in a single color still has depth in it at arm’s length. Aizome is the Japanese word for indigo dyeing, and indigo is unlike almost every other dye in that it is not soluble in water. It has to be reduced in a vat to a soluble yellow-green form, and the blue only appears as the cloth comes out and meets the air. That is why indigo is built up in dips rather than applied in one go, and why a pale indigo is a decision about how many times to stop rather than about how much dye to use. The cut is wide and straight with a single dart shaping each leg, which is an unusual way to put shape into a wide trouser and a quiet one.

Why we selected it

Most wide trousers get their interest from volume, and volume is the easiest thing in a trouser to overdo. This one is plain in the cut and interesting in the cloth, which is the harder way around and the one that still looks considered in five years.

Kuon’s product names are a vocabulary of Japanese technique rather than a set of model names, and this is the one that names the dye.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, made in Japan. Slub yarn. Wide, straight leg, with a single dart on each leg. Color: Light Indigo.

Fit notes

Wide and straight, so it hangs from the waist rather than following the leg, and the dart is doing the small amount of shaping the cut allows. A slub cotton has body without stiffness and softens with wearing rather than with washing. Wide trousers are chosen at the waist, because nothing below it is fitted.

Styling

With the Zip-Up Cotton Shirt tucked, which is the plainest version. With the Aizome Sashiko Shirt, if you want two indigos of very different depths against each other. Under the Fanage Corduroy Blazer.

Care

A deep or fresh indigo will transfer onto pale cloth and onto seating for the first several wearings, and onto your hands if the trousers are wet, so wash them separately and cold the first few times and do not sit on cream upholstery on day one. Wash inside out, cold, and hang to dry. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Aizome Sashiko Shirt is cotton this house dyes with indigo, and the Boro Jacquard Wide Trousers are cotton cut to a straight wide leg. Everything we carry from Kuon is listed together.