Massimo Alba Ionio2 Trouser

The single pleat is one of the most misunderstood details in menswear. It is not decoration and it is not nostalgia. A pleat is a controlled fold of fabric released at the waist, and its job is to give the front of the trouser somewhere to go when you sit, walk, or put your hands in your pockets, so the cloth moves instead of pulling. One pleat rather than two keeps the effect quiet: you get the ease without the volume, and the trouser still reads as a clean line from the front.

The cloth is a cotton twill, and the twill is the other half of why this works. A twill is woven on the diagonal: each pass of the weft crosses two or more warp threads and then goes under one, and the staggered crossings produce the faint diagonal grain you can see if you hold the cloth to the light. It is not decoration. Fewer interlacings per inch than a plain weave means the cloth bends more readily at the same weight, so it falls in a line instead of a plane, it takes a press and keeps it, and it shrugs off the creases a plain-woven cotton keeps all day. It is the weave nearly all serious trousering is made in, and for exactly those reasons.

Cut regular through the leg and made in a cotton deep enough to be called Caffe, this is a trouser that does the work of tailoring without the commitment of it. It goes under a jacket without looking like half a suit and stands alone with a knit without looking like a chino. That is a narrow target and most trousers miss it in one direction or the other.

We selected the Ionio2 once and bought it in two cloths, because the cut is right and the cut is what is hard to find. The cotton is the one that carries through autumn and the one we would put with a jacket.

One hundred percent cotton twill, made in Italy. Single pleat, regular fit. Colour: Caffe.

Regular fit, which here means clean through the thigh without being close, and the pleat gives back the room a slim cut takes away. Cotton has less movement in it than linen or wool, so this holds a crease and a shape better and travels less across a day. Take your usual size; the pleat is doing the accommodating.

Under the Baglietto in Caffe, tonally, which is more interesting than it sounds. With the Larry crewneck in dark green. With the Genova in Laguna in warmer weather.

Wash cool or have them cleaned, and press with the crease if the trouser came with one. Keep them off a hot dryer, which is what shortens a cotton trouser permanently. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

The Ionio2 Trouser in Ferro is the linen version. The Winch2 Trousers are the corduroy, the Stan Cotton Trouser is the double-pleated cotton, and the Baglietto Jacket is cut in the same colour. There is more on the house on the Massimo Alba designer page. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.