Bonobos, based in New York, has found a simple product that sells — that is, casual dress trousers in fabrics like lightweight wool, corduroy and cashmere that cost US$110 to US$310; and, most important, that fit a man’s legs and seat more like jeans do, courtesy of a novel curved waistband, a medium rise, a narrow-cut thigh and a couple of well-placed darts above each cheek. Last fall, even as the retail sector nosedived, Bonobos sales increased steadily each month, from US$163,000 in August to US$270,000 in December, Dunn said, adding that the average customer bought four pairs.
What the new fit does is walk a careful line between comfortable and sexy.
“The intersection of the two is crucial,” said Bill Kang, 27, a marketing executive in New York. “I think it’s a generational thing to some extent. When my father has been with me when I’m getting a jacket or pants fitted, he’ll say, ‘That’s too tight.’ It’s different now.”
Kang fell so in love with his Bonobos that he made a three-minute fan video for a contest the company sponsored. The video cleverly cut to the chase. A man and woman see each other on the morning subway but don’t get to meet. Just in time, she notices the colorful fabric the company uses to line the back pockets. As the day goes on, she keeps glimpsing that elusive rear-bumper detail through crowds, until she finally meets the man again. The message: The female gaze is something to flirt with, not avoid.
“Women have a license today to ogle men,” said Kate White, the editor of Cosmopolitan, who added that men are increasingly willing to oblige when it comes to wardrobe. “Baby boomers had to pretend clothes didn’t matter. Guys in their 20s aren’t ashamed to admit that they’re thinking about how to turn a woman on.”
Even so, men are in no hurry to revisit the cheesy machismo (and skintight pants) that became a joke in the 1970s. Luckily, today’s shapelier trousers are made in gentlemanly fabrics like corduroy, worsted wool and combed cotton. This not only makes them good for work and off-hours, but also gives them that crucial balance of overtly sexy and coolly dignified.
With pants, as with all things, you never want to look back and cringe.
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