There are some definite upsides to cooler weather. One upside is that we get to break out autumn staples such as Shetland sweaters, tweed, and camel hair, but what would we pair them with if it were not for corduroy? Yes, the same fabric that I hated as a child has become one of my favorites (a lot like vegetables and Tuna). Corduroy is warm, has a rugged texture, and comes in a plethora of colors, but right now I am focused on green.
Before I go any further I thought that a brief overview of corduroy is in order. Corduroy is durable fabric that is composed of twisted fibers that are woven to lie parallel creating the “cord.” It is basically a ridged form of velvet. The “wale” refers to the width of the cord which is measured by the number of ridges per inch. The more “wales” there are the softer the corduroy. The average number of wales for trousers is around 10 and the finest cord is known as pincord.
I plan on adding a few pair of dress corduroys to my closet this fall and at least one pair will be green. I stumbled across this picture on “The Handbook Authority” last week that proved to me that I need a pair. It also made me think that I wanted a more vivid green opposed to the olive green that I would generally select. Although I associate this color of green with holiday parties I am sure that I can work into my regular rotation. If not, they will be well suited for December. So per usual I head to the internet and began my search. I have yet to pull the trigger, but you can see my potential picks below.
Inspiration Pic
Speaking of Holiday Parties & Cords (Pic from The Daily Prep)
Lands End Wide Wale Cord Trousers Fir Green ($79)
Lands’ End18-Wale Corduroy trousers Evergreen Forest ($79)
Lands’ End Fine Wale Corduroy Pants Safari Green ($79)
Brooks Brothers 8 Wale Cord Forest Green ($98.50)
Brooks Brothers 8 Wale Cords Kelly Green w/Embroidered Penguins (not in the running, but fun!) $(128)
L.L. Bean Dress Cords in Loden ($64)
I bought a pair of the LE tailored fit wide-wales in fir green last year and I never got around to hemming them. This post (and the chilly weather here in the Northeast) reminded me that I need to get on that. I genuinely love LE’s wide wale cords. They’re beefy, have a great hand and a good fit. And, they’re warm.
I have a few a pair of thinner wale LE Cords and I suspect they wear a bit too easily and lack that luxury deep pile look you get with wider wale.
Wide wale only, please. Thank you.
Corduroy is the most fantastic masculine fabric there is. I love dark colored wide wale cords for Winter months. I love medium wale corduroys all the time and I love narrow wales jeans style corduroys especially in bright colors (mustard, red, royal blue, apple green, orange, yellow) such as Levis corduroy jeans. When Summer starts, I love to get out all my fantastic corduroy shorts especially these Quiksilver cord shorts. I still wear sometimes some corduroy shorts from my great OP corduroy shorts collection.