Massimo Alba Lois Trouser – SS26

A loose linen trouser is one of the most attractive things a person can own and one of the easiest to buy badly, and the failure is nearly always weight. Light linen goes limp by the middle of the afternoon and clings where it is not wanted, which is why so many of them end up unworn. Heavy linen solves both problems at once. It is opaque, it has enough mass to fall straight from the hip rather than moving with every step, and it holds the line of a wide leg without any structure underneath it.

The high waist is what makes the proportion work. Sitting at the natural waist rather than the hip lengthens the leg and gives a loose trouser a defined starting point, so the volume reads as deliberate instead of merely large. It is a shape that has been correct for a hundred years and will be for another hundred.

In Wood the trouser stops being a decision. It is a warm mid-brown with enough grey in it to sit against black and against white without choosing between them, which is a narrow thing for a brown to manage and the reason this one goes with a wardrobe that is already assembled. A white linen trouser has to be thought about before it is put on. This one does not.

A linen trouser is one of the few things a Santa Fe summer genuinely requires, and finding a linen heavy enough to hold a wide leg is the whole difficulty. This is the pair that solved it. Wood is the version for the woman who already owns the white one, and the one that survives a dusty afternoon without needing to be dealt with by evening.

One hundred percent heavy linen, made in Italy. High waist, loose fit. Colour: Wood.

High-waisted, so measure at the natural waist rather than where you usually wear a trouser, and expect the rise to feel longer than you are used to. Loose through the leg with the weight of the cloth keeping it straight. Linen has no recovery, so it relaxes across a day and returns with washing. Length matters more on this shape than on most; a wide leg wants to break cleanly or not at all.

Under the Stromboli jacket, which is cut in a Grape that goes brown before it goes bright and therefore sits with this brown rather than against it. With the Pamela shirt tucked, or with the Selma in Bianco. The Rosy cardigan in Nero over any of it. Flat shoes or a low heel; a wide leg wants nothing complicated at the foot.

Wash cool and hang to dry. Heavy linen takes washing well and softens with it. Press damp if you want a crease, and reconcile yourself to it not lasting the evening. Our linen care guidance covers the rest.

The Lois Trousers in Bianco are the same trouser in white. The Stromboli Jacket is the linen jacket, the Pamela Shirt is the cotton shirt, the Karly Trousers are the wide-leg linen, and the Selma Shirt is the linen shirt. There is more on the house on the Massimo Alba designer page. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.