Massimo Alba Stan Trousers

Midnight blue is not simply a darker navy. It is a colour with a specific job, acquired in evening dress a century ago, when tailors worked out that navy at full depth reads blacker than black under artificial light and richer than black under any light at all. Black absorbs everything that falls on it. Midnight blue keeps a little. On a trouser worn in daylight the effect is quieter and still there: the leg reads as a solid dark without the flatness black gives you, and it sits against brown, against grey, and against every off-white without the hard edge black brings to all three. The pleats give the front of the trouser somewhere to travel, and relaxed rather than loose means the volume stops short of being a statement about volume.

A dark trouser that is neither black nor half a suit is a genuinely difficult thing to buy. This is the pair that answered it, and the colour is most of the answer.

One hundred percent cotton, made in Italy. Double pleat, relaxed fit. Colour: Midnight Blue.

Relaxed sits between a regular cut and a full one: clean through the seat and the thigh, with the pleats releasing enough cloth that nothing pulls when you sit down. Take your usual size, since the pleats do the accommodating. Cotton holds a crease better than linen and moves less, so the leg stays where it is put across a day rather than travelling with you.

With the Bali jacket in cotton, which shares the colour and the season. With the Genova in Bianco. With the Larry crewneck in dark green, which is the pairing most men would not think of and should.

Wash cool or have them cleaned, hang to dry, and press the pleats if you want the front sharp. Keep them out of a hot dryer, which is what shortens a cotton trouser permanently. Our cotton care guidance covers the rest.

The Stan Cotton Trouser in Smoke is the Stan cut for a different season. The Bali Jacket in cotton is cut in Midnight Blue as well, the Ionio2 Trouser in Caffe is the single-pleat cotton, and the Winch2 Trousers are the corduroy. There is more on the house on the Massimo Alba designer page. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.