Margaret Howell Relaxed Crop Pant

Cotton and linen is the oldest useful blend in summer clothing and it exists to solve a specific problem. Linen alone is cool and dry against the skin and has almost no recovery, so it creases hard and bags at the knee. Cotton alone recovers well and holds a shape but sits warmer and closer. At roughly three parts cotton to one part linen the cloth keeps most of linen's dryness and its faint irregular surface, and cotton supplies the spring that stops the trouser from collapsing by the afternoon. Cut relaxed and cropped, so there is air through the leg and the hem stops above the shoe, which is where a summer trouser should stop. The shade is called Mouse, which is the sort of plain, unpersuasive name this house tends to give a color, and it tells you more than a number would. It is the least demanding thing in this line and the one most likely to be worn twice a week.

We wanted a summer trouser that did not need managing. This is the one you can sit down in.

Seventy-three percent cotton and twenty-seven percent linen, made in Italy. Relaxed fit, cropped leg. The shade is Mouse.

Relaxed through the hip and the leg with a cropped hem. Numeric sizing. The linen in the blend means it will crease across the lap and mostly fall out; the cotton means it will not stay creased the way a full linen does.

With the Three Button Shirt or the Bib Front Shirt worn out. Under the Relaxed Blazer for a version that reads put together without reading tailored. Flat shoes at the crop.

Wash cool and hang to dry rather than tumbling, which is what shrinks the linen half of a blend unevenly against the cotton half. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

The Pleated Crop Trouser is cotton with a pleated front, and the Relaxed Pleated Trouser is a compact linen twill. There is more on the house on the Margaret Howell designer page. Everything we carry from Margaret Howell is listed together.