Kuon Seersucker Hakama Trousers

There is a genuine contradiction in this garment and it is the reason it works. A hakama is a pleated garment and pleats are ordinarily held by pressing: an iron sets the fold and the fold is what gives the shape its authority. Seersucker cannot be pressed at all, because the pucker woven into it is the only thing it does and an iron flattens it permanently. So the pleats on this trouser have to be structural rather than pressed. They are cut large at the front and held at the top by a drawstring waist, and what keeps them is the volume of the leg and the weight of the cloth rather than any finishing. The cloth then does something a flat seersucker in a narrow trouser could not: the pucker keeps the fabric standing off the skin, and in a leg this wide that means air moves through the whole garment rather than just past it. It is the most practical summer trouser in a shape that started out as formal dress.

Wide summer trousers are almost always drawstring shapes with nothing in them. This one has an idea and a cloth that argues with the idea, which is more interesting than either alone.

The hakama is the shape Kuon returns to most, and this is the summer version of it.

Sixty-nine percent polyester and thirty-one percent cotton, made in Japan. Seersucker. Wide leg, with large pleats at the front and a drawstring waist. Color: Black.

Wide and pleated, so the fit is at the waist and the drawstring gives that real range. Seersucker has no give and no recovery, which on a wide trouser matters much less than it would on a narrow one, since nothing is being asked to stretch. The cloth stands off the leg rather than following it.

With the Suminagashi Tee, which is the simplest and the coolest version. With the Zip-Up Cotton Shirt in white, tucked. Under the Side Zip Seersucker Blazer, which is the same cloth in navy rather than black, so the two are a texture match rather than a color match.

Do not press these. The pucker is the cloth. Polyester at sixty-nine percent sets the heat ceiling as well, so keep an iron away entirely, wash cool, and hang them to dry, which is the only finishing they need or will tolerate. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Denim Hakama Trousers are the hakama shape in cotton, and the Hakama Trouser in black is the same shape in a recycled wool. Everything we carry from Kuon is listed together.