Nicholas Daley Pleated Trouser – Khaki

A single pleat is a decision about how much a trouser should announce itself. Two pleats give you volume and the manners of tailoring. None gives you a flat front and a modern line. One sits between them and does something more useful than either, which is to release cloth across the thigh where a body genuinely needs it and then let the leg draw back in below the knee. That is the entire shape here: high on the waist, full at the top of the leg, tapered to the ankle. It is cut in Japan in a plain cotton, with no check, no contrast panel, and nothing else to look at. Among a designer's worth of tartans, waxed panels, and hand-crochet, this is the trouser that does not raise its voice, and it is the one most likely to be worn to pieces.

The colour

Khaki is a Hindi and Urdu word meaning dust-coloured, adopted by the British Indian Army in the nineteenth century because it was the colour of the ground, and it has been leaving the military ever since. What it does on a trouser is what a mid-tone always does: it shows the shape of the garment more clearly than black can, so the pleat and the taper are visible rather than implied. Against black, navy, indigo, olive, and ecru it is a neutral. Against a tartan it is not, and the black pair is the better choice there.

We selected this for the cut and bought both neutrals, because a trouser this plain gets worn constantly and one colour was never going to cover it. It is the pair we point to when a customer likes Daley's proportion and does not want a pattern.

One hundred percent cotton, cut and sewn in Japan. Single pleat, high waist, tapered leg. Colour: Khaki.

Identical to its black sibling: worn on the waist, pleat releasing across the thigh, leg drawing in below the knee. Cotton relaxes over the first season. Between sizes, take the smaller waist.

With the Bowling Shirt, the Beach Shirt, or the Knitted Vest in green, all of which want a warm neutral under them. With the Classic Two Pocket Shirt in black, where the khaki does more work than the black pair would. This is the summer half of the pair.

Wash cool inside out and hang to dry. Khaki cotton shows marks more than black does and takes a stain more visibly, so deal with spills promptly rather than at the end of the season. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

The Pleated Trouser in black is the same trouser in the darker colour. The 2-Pleat Trouser adds a second pleat in the same Japanese cotton, and the Classic Two Pocket Shirt in beige sits above it. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.