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Our trousers arrive with the hem unfinished. That surprises people the first time, so it is worth saying plainly why we do it. Everyone's leg is a different length, everyone wears different shoes, and break is a preference rather than a rule. We would rather send you a trouser that is deliberately long and let you set the length with a tailor than send you a factory guess that is wrong for you and impossible to lengthen. Break in one paragraph Break is the fold, or crease, that appears at the front of the trouser leg where the hem meets...

Part 3 of The Wolf vs Goat Guide to Menswear One of the questions I hear most often is: "What's the best fabric for trousers?" It's a simple question, but it doesn't have a simple answer. Choosing cloth isn't like choosing a paint color. The best fabric depends on where you'll wear the trousers, the climate you live in, how often you'll wear them, and how you want the garment to perform. That's why we never choose fabrics based on prestige alone. We choose them because they're the right cloth for the garment we're trying to create. To understand why,...

Every few weeks somebody writes to ask why our trousers sit higher than they expected. It is not an error and it is not a trend we are chasing. Rise is a deliberate measurement, it decides how a trouser hangs from the waist down, and almost nobody selling trousers bothers to explain it. Once you know what the number means, you can buy with far more confidence and stop blaming the wrong part of the garment when something feels off. What rise actually measures Rise is the distance from the top of the waistband down to the crotch seam, measured...

Why Great Trousers Start With the Pattern Part 2 of The Wolf vs Goat Guide to Menswear When most people shop for trousers, they focus on the measurements. "What's the rise?" "How wide is the leg opening?" "Is the fit slim or relaxed?" Those are reasonable questions, but they're not the questions a patternmaker asks. Before a single piece of fabric is cut or a stitch is sewn, every important characteristic of a pair of trousers has already been determined by the pattern. The rise, seat, thigh, knee, leg opening, and overall silhouette all begin as carefully considered decisions on...