Nigel Cabourn French Work Pant – FW

Ninety percent is a lot of hemp for a trouser, and the ten percent of cotton is not a compromise so much as a spinning decision. Hemp is a bast fiber: long, strong, low in elasticity, and abrasive enough in a pure yarn that a trouser made from it can be genuinely unpleasant for the first season. A small proportion of cotton takes that edge off without changing what the cloth does. And what it does is hold a line. Hemp resists the sag that a cotton twill develops at the knee and the seat across a day, so a hemp trouser at six o'clock still describes a leg rather than the person inside it. It creases hard, it softens slowly, and it ends up shaped to the wearer rather than to the pattern. Charcoal, and made in Japan.

We wanted a hard-wearing trouser that was not denim and not chino, and hemp is the only cloth we know that gets somewhere neither of those goes.

The French pieces are the working-clothes end of Cabourn's archive rather than the military end, and this trouser and its matching jacket are the pair that makes the distinction clearest.

Ninety percent hemp and ten percent cotton. Made in Japan. Color: Charcoal. We do not hold a description of the pockets, the waistband, or the fastening, and we have not supplied any.

Hemp has almost no recovery, so take your usual waist and expect the cloth to take a set at the knee rather than stretching. It will feel stiff for the first several wearings and then stop feeling stiff fairly suddenly, which is normal for a high-hemp cloth and is not a sign that anything has worn out.

With the French Work Jacket in the same cloth, which is the version the two were made for. With the French Pull-On Shirt in white, or the Open Collar Shirt in ivory, either of which lightens a charcoal that can otherwise get heavy.

Cool water, no tumble drying, and press while slightly damp if you press at all. Hemp is strong when wet and will take washing better than the stiffness suggests, and it shrinks once rather than progressively. Our care guidance covers linen and hemp in more detail.

The French Work Jacket is the same hemp and cotton cloth cut as outerwear, and the Farmer Pant is a hemp herringbone twill. Everything we carry from Nigel Cabourn is listed together.