21 December 2012

Those Ain't Pants...

Recently I've been without dungarees. The two pair of Wranglers I bought from Shepler's a while back served me well, but eventually shrunk too much to be comfortable. For a while, I was content to live without them, laboring under some false belief that at 36 years old I was too old for jeans. But then I realized that in November and December I was a bit lost without my old uniform of jeans/bean boots/sweater/Barbour, and truthfully, no well dressed American man's wardrobe can ever be complete without some proper jeans. A few weeks back, Levi's had a one day only 40% off sale with free shipping, so I grabbed two pair of good old 501 shrink-to-fit for $56. Not bad.
So I photographed them, and rinsed them, and got ready to write about the vagaries of denim and denim nerds, but before I got a chance, these came along, eclipsing all other trousers in the house:


These ain't pants, they's PANTS. $5.99 at a thrift shop. No tags, but they are really beautifully constructed of some of the softest, most luxurious bits of tweed I've seen, and fully lined in cotton. I suspect Andover Shop, as they were known for patch tweed. Maybe Charlie can confirm this for me after they come back from alterations.
Best of all, they're true patchwork, no repetition of pattern at all to the arrangement of the squares.  These really are made of scraps, as they should be. Too bad I won't have them back in time for Christmas. Not to worry, though. There's always tartan.
I wasn't going to mention Christmas or holidays at all here if I could help it. Frankly, having worked retail as long as I have, I'm downright sour on the whole thing. If it weren't for my children, I'd be completely insufferable this time of year. But I gotta say, Winter go-to-hell pants do help keep me cheery.



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I wasn't going to mention Christmas or holidays at all here if I could help it"

I'm sorry to hear that -- one of my favorite blog posts of all time was one of yours from Christmas some years ago where you enjoyed a mini bottle or two of some single batch and wrapped presents for your kids.

G, I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and that you can hopefully see past the barrage of commercialism and enjoy this most wonderful time of year.

Patrick said...

Those patchwork pants are da bomb.

Dennis said...

501s ticked me off when they went to 5 belt loops. Your's like that? Get some added if you have stuff going to the tailor.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of pants:

A man brings some very fine material to a tailor and asks him to make a pair of pants. When he comes back a week later, the pants are not ready. Two weeks later, they still are not ready. Finally, after six weeks, the pants are ready. The man tries them on. They fit perfectly. Nonetheless, when it comes time to pay, he can't resist a jibe at the tailor.

"You know," he says, "it took God only six days to make the world. And it took you six weeks to make just one pair of pants."

"Ah," the tailor says. "But look at this pair of pants, and look at the world!"

L33tminion said...

Those patchwork pants are amazing!

Marc said...

Give it a few days and the Christmas spirit will probably creep up on you. I'm a proper old Scrooge myself, but we all soften on the day.

Those patchwork tweed trousers are so excellent. I hope Santa brings me a pair like those.

Anonymous said...

Every Winter needs some whimsy and those patchwork pants are it! Wow. Thanks for sharing your one-in-a-lifetime find!

Felix said...

Those are the most amazing I have seen!

Young Fogey said...

Those are the giuseppiest pants I have ever seen. Wear them in good health, and Merry Christmas!

Northmoon said...

Those pants are amazing enough as a topic, but then you are all excited that the nine patch pattern wasn't repeated, which takes the whole post right over the top!

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family, that's the most important thing.

Johnny said...

If I owned those pants, I would be so excited that I would crap myself every time I wore them. Ironic.

Mike said...

Those PANTS are indeed off the hook... Something like that would certainly make on stand out in the crowd!

Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Those pants have got to be the illest I have seen! I love tweed and have never seen anything quite like those pants! If only I could find some for myself. Merry Christmas and much happiness and joy to you and your family! Love the blog and my wardrobe thanks you every day!

Anonymous said...

Amazing find!

Anonymous said...

From a fellow retail store worker: I completely understand. While the season is great sales-wise, there's something so deeply stressful in Christmas that I don't like it at all.

Of course, my other "limitations", as an active atheist, apply to every religious holiday, with my heaviest opinion towards them being unsupported by the nation - if one wishes to celebrate them, they should use their vacation for 'em.

But that patchwork tweed AND the tartans are beauties. I wish to find something like that someday.