Kuon Boro Jacquard Wide Trousers

Boro is construction. It is what happens when cloth is patched onto cloth and stitched down, over and over, until the object is thicker in some places than others and every seam is a date. A jacquard is the opposite kind of thing entirely: a loom mechanism that controls every warp thread individually, so a figure of any complexity can be woven into the cloth as it is made. These trousers are the second of those two things. The patchwork is woven in, not sewn from separate pieces, which makes the cloth a photograph of repair rather than repair. It takes a construction that could only ever have arisen from use and reproduces it as a pattern in a single unbroken length. Whether that is the most interesting thing this house does or the most questionable is a real question and it is worth putting to a customer rather than smoothing over, because the whole argument for boro is that the cloth earned its appearance. It is also, plainly, the harder piece of work: every shift of tone and every apparent seam has to be planned into the warp before a single pick is thrown, where a patchwork can be decided at the table. Kuon calls the cloth its signature patchwork denim textile, and the leg is cut straight.

The idea is the reason. A house that works with real salvaged cloth also making a cloth that quotes salvaged cloth is either a contradiction or the most honest thing in the collection, and we are not sure which.

Kuon builds garments from antique boro as a matter of practice, and this is the piece where the boro is a design rather than a history, woven rather than accumulated.

One hundred percent cotton, made in Japan. Kuon's signature patchwork denim textile, and it is a jacquard: the patchwork figure is woven into the cloth rather than sewn together from separate pieces. Straight leg, wide. Color: Black.

Straight and wide, so these are chosen at the waist and the seat and nothing below is fitted. A cotton denim holds its shape from the first wearing and takes a few weeks to shape to the wearer. Because the patching is woven in, the cloth is one continuous length with no patch seams inside it, so these hang and soften like the plain denim they are rather than carrying the extra bulk an assembled cloth would put at every join.

With the Zip-Up Cotton Shirt tucked, which is the plainest thing you can put with a patterned trouser. Under the Aizome Sashiko Shirt worn open. With the Boro Bucket Hat, if you want the argument made twice.

Wash rarely, cold, inside out, and hang to dry. A black denim loses depth with washing and does not get it back, and a cloth carrying a figure loses definition along with it, so wash these less than you think you need to. The figure is woven rather than applied, so nothing on the surface can lift or fray at an edge; what these can lose is depth. Our care guidance covers denim and the rest.

The Boro Double Ring Belt and the Boro Bucket Hat are cotton made from sewing factory cuttings, which is a different thing from a woven pattern. Everything we carry from Kuon is listed together.