On the Merits of Drawstring Pants

A More Comfortable Pant for a Decidedly Uncomfortable Age

I should start out by clarifying that the drawstring pants to which I am referring do not include sweatpants or pajama pants, nor do they include jogger modifications on any non-sweatpant. The specific category of drawstring pants I am lauding are semi-formal, casual, or lounge pants which have an elastic and drawstring waist. This includes chinos and slacks that appear to have a traditional waist but actually have a drawstring. This includes open legged athletic pants such as track pants. This also includes elevated lounge style pants, typically in some blended combination of cotton/linen/wool/silk etc. 

The primary merit of drawstring pants is comfort. For almost a year now, we have all lived in a near constant state of lounging. Public interaction and socialization have been kept to a minimum. Almost all professions that required elevated dress have been relegated to remote work from home. With little to no need for most of us to exercise our style, it has fallen into hoodie and jogger clad atrophy. 

Human beings are excellent at adapting to new situations and environments. It has allowed us to inhabit nearly every ecosystem on our planet’s surface. Now, we must adapt our wardrobes to the post-COVID world. We do not have to return to the restriction of buttoned and belted waists. Life is still too physically relaxed yet mentally strenuous to deal with belt loops again. Yet we must pull ourselves out of sweatpants monotony. There are plenty of alternatives out there which provide a stylish look acceptable in modern society while providing the comfort of a drawstring waist.

The Drawstring Chino

Uniqlo Cotton Relaxed Ankle Pant

Drawstring chinos are the most simple and versatile option out there. They feign the appearance of proper pants while providing the comfort of sweatpants. You can wear them with anything from a blazer to a t-shirt and they work year round.

The Track Pant

AMI Tailored Track Pant

Track pants provide a more fashionable edge to a semiformal outfit. Swap them in where you would traditionally wear wool slacks. For example, these black AMI Tailored Track Pants would work great with a white oxford and camel topcoat for getting stuff done on the weekend. Solid blue or black track pants can work with a collared shirt and loafers for office attire. Always go for a pair with the fake crease, they’re harder to find these days but provide the best look.

The Lounge Pant

OAS Banana Leaf Terry Lounge Pant

Its all in the name. Lounge pants are made for comfort above all else. While that originally entailed staying in ones home, loungewear ventured out into public years ago and the pandemic only made it more acceptable. A proper lounge pant – featuring soft fabrics and decorative patterns – can be the centerpiece of a social outfit. They’re often lighter weight, reserving them for spring and summer. Pair with solid white, gray, blue, or black t-shirts and button downs and you can go as bold as you’d like with the pants.

The Drawstring Trouser

Paul Smith Linen Drawstring Trouser

The alteration here is subtle but effective. An otherwise traditional suiting style pant is upgraded with an elastic waistband and drawstring. You get the formal look of trousers with a more comfortable feel. The only catch here is that shirt tucking gets tricky. You can do a full tuck or french tuck when adding a jacket but otherwise your shirt should remain untucked.

The Bold Move

STAN Fernando Wedding Quilt Trouser

Going with a drawstring waistband is a pragmatic move, it’s done for ease and physical comfort. The aesthetics of the matter come down to personal style. If your style is bold and you enjoy expressing yourself with unique looks then drawstring pants offer a whole new range of options. These are mostly derived from lounge pants, taking advantage of the ornate patterns classically found on pajama sets. With the rise of up-cycled fashion, any fabric imaginable can be turned into comfortable pants.

And Now For Something Completely Different

In appreciation for albums that take some time to grow on you before their true genius is revealed

Arctic Monkeys in 2018 by Zachary Michael/Domino Records

Successful musicians, like all artists, must face the dilemma of balancing creative growth with audience anticipations. The relationship between fans and their beloved artists often gets deeply personal. We come to expect certain things in personal relationships – your best friend will always meet for drinks when you’re down, your cat will always try to sit on your keyboard when you’re composing important emails, and your favorite singer will always send shivers down your spine when they hit the hook. 

Learning to manage expectations is a valuable life lesson because sometimes your friends are busy, sometimes your cat is asleep elsewhere, and sometimes your favorite musicians go in a completely unexpected direction and it takes more than a few listens to appreciate their new sound. When that appreciation does hit (assuming it’s not just a bad album), it ultimately makes a far more rewarding experience than hearing more of the same. 

Albums that take a while to digest are a rare pleasure. They come along once every year or so, if you have a broad appreciation for music. Artists challenge themselves to create something new. Their audiences, in turn, are challenged to understand something new. We enter this exchange with good faith on both sides. Artists trust that their audience will give the new sound a chance and ultimately enjoy it. Audiences trust that these artists will not let them down and their effort will pay off.

Best of all is when you’re completely caught off guard by an artist you thought you knew. You’ve listened to them since their first release, heard all their B Sides, seen them live, and read plenty of interviews. All good artists grow with each new project so you expect some surprises as you wade into a new album. Yet you find yourself in a strange new world, just familiar enough to recognize like a reflection on rippled water. Your initial impressions may be disappointing or off putting but with repeated visits, the new world set out for you takes shape. Once acquainted, the joy sets in. It’s all so new and you love it. 

Sgt. Pepper, Kid  A, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are probably the most famous examples of very successful musicians making gigantic creative leaps that were eventually declared game changing works of genius. These albums are so heralded that there is nothing more I could possibly add to the discussion. So I’m going to focus on a newer album by one of my favorite bands: 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino by Arctic Monkeys. 

Five years passed between the release of TBHC and it’s predecessor AM. After touring stadiums and headlining festivals around the world in support of AM, Arctic Monkeys took some well earned time off. Lead singer Alex Turner fought through a bout of writer’s block by turning to a science fiction theme. He recorded demo tracks at his home studio in late 2016 using a piano instead of guitar as he had previously written most of their songs. 

Turner’s new songs were so different thematically and musically that guitarist Jamie Cook initially suggested that he use them for a solo album. After spending some time with the songs however, Cook took to the new sound and began writing accompanying guitar riffs. Drummer Matt Helders and bassist Nick O’Malley joined them in the studio in September 2017 to begin work on the album. In order to properly flesh out Turner’s demo tracks, guest musicians were brought in to play piano and synths. Recording was done live with all musicians in the same room, inspired by the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. The resulting sound was unlike anything ever heard from the Arctic Monkeys before.

You wouldn’t be wrong to call TBHC a concept album. Each track tells a short story set in and around the titular outer space hotel. Turners trademark witticisms and innuendos are peppered throughout anecdotes about being jaded and bored. Whether you’re a deep space traveler or a strung out rock star, when you’ve seen enough places and met enough people they all start to look the same. 

TBHC’s orchestrations evoke emotion and movement like the soundtrack to a movie that exists only in Turner’s mind. Upon initial listening, Arctic Monkeys fans encounter sounds as unfamiliar as a distant universe. Like stumbling into a Philip K. Dick story on your way to a rock concert. Theatrical arrangements evoke glam era David Bowie – as do Turner’s vocals. There are so many layers to peel back, pieces to fit together, and lyrics to untangle that each listen reveals a bit more of the grand picture. 

Half of TBHCs ten tracks are catchy enough to please any fan at first listen. The true genius of the album only reveals itself after a dozen or so listens. As with all such albums, once the genius reveals itself, your struggle turns into pure adoration. You can’t get enough. You have to listen to the whole thing over and over, end to end. Your favorite lines and hooks play on repeat in the back of your mind for days. What was unfamiliar and uncomfortable has become one of your favorite albums. 

Most musicians will never fully redefine their sound and create something completely new and unique in a single album. The risk is intimidating. When artists are fortunate enough to gain success they are inclined to stick with what they’re good at. For true musical geniuses though, the monotony of sticking with what works is unacceptable. When Alex Turner got sick of writing love songs he wrote a sci-fi noir that became, in my opinion, the best album his band has ever made.

Bootlegs: The Strokes 6/30/06

We all miss concerts so every week I’m going to post a Youtube bootleg to try and fill that void in our lives. This week its The Strokes headlining the 2006 Les Eurockéennes Festival.

The Strokes were at the height of their power in the summer 2006 when they took the stage in Belfort, France. For five years they had reigned as the coolest band in the world. But that title weighed heavily upon them.

Divisions were forming amongst this once unshakeable band of brothers. Albert’s drug habit turned into an addiction that emotionally isolated him from his bandmates. Fab despised the trappings that came with stardom and was on the verge of quitting the business all together. Julien’s drinking and ego had both gotten out of hand, each vice feeding off the other. A non-stop touring schedule, respited only to record new albums, had pushed them all to the edge of exhaustion.

Yet they never lost their grasp on their craft. First Impressions of Earth, their third album, saw vast musical maturation from their first two releases which played like A and B sides of a single album. Their live show too had been honed to razor sharp precision by half a decade of merciless performing. The result is on full display here, one of the greatest bands of all time at the peak of their abilities.

Less than two years later it would all come crashing down. An attempted fourth album would be put on hold for Albert’s rehab. The Strokes splintered into solo projects. It would be another five years until their next album and arguably six years until their live show approached anything close to it’s 2006 peak.

Under the Influence: Central Division

Under the Influence is a series highlighting creatives who have genuine influence on art and style culture. The term “influencer” has been tossed around so freely that practically all meaning has been lost. Marketing departments and ad agencies have misconstrued follows and likes for genuine cultural influence and diluted the title. This series will attempt to refine the criteria by building a list of worthy examples.

Michael Williams (Middle Left) and David Coggins (Right) at a 2016 Levis Event

Central Division, as the name suggests, is a collaborative effort between two good friends to consolidate their like-minded content. It just so happens that these friends are two of the leading minds in menswear. Michael Williams and David Coggins are creating a mindset for modern men (and women) to follow for a more considered and rewarding life. Their musings proselytize style over fashion, quality over quantity, and integrity over trend. They avoid altogether what Michael calls “fashion with a capital F” in favor of timeless ideals and guilty pleasures. 

Williams pioneered style blogging with A Continuous Lean in 2007 and rose to become somewhat of a deity amongst that particular niche. Inspiration for ACL came from Japanese menswear magazines of the early 2000s along with William’s appreciation for dwindling high quality American manufacturing. He likened his approach to the Farm-to-Table movement, highlighting the best goods and showing consumers where they came from.

Williams started his career in PR. When he started to burn himself out a few years ago (just as the blogosphere became saturated), he redirected his focus back to PR. He co-owned a boutique agency throughout the ACL glory days but now he has his own shop called ACL & Co. Then the pandemic hit in early 2020 and completely devastated the fashion industry, along with everything else. As if he were Batman responding to the Bat Signal, Williams rebooted ACL as a newsletter and returned to the style blogging game with renewed vigor to provide solace for a following laid low. 

Coggins is a writer with a backstory so literary that it would fit neatly into a Wes Anderson film. His father is an artist and writer who taught him an appreciation for the finer things in life (going by the same name, the two are often confused on social media). He grew up in Minnesota surrounded by nature and high culture. His career began with travel writing as he made his way onto the staff of Conde Nast Traveler. Coggins’ writing focused more on the culture of foreign places rather than the nuts and bolts of travel and this often included style. This led to style focus bylines in a growing number of periodicals including Esquire and The Wall Street Journal.

In 2016, Coggins published his first book, titled “Men and Style.” It’s a collection of essays and gathered quotes from friends that form a guide to finding one’s personal style. The wisdom found in “Men and Style” has stood as a mission statement for just about everything Coggins has written since. He wrote a follow up called “Men and Manners” in 2018. Just as Williams was tapering off ACL, Coggins filled the void by launching his own blog in 2019 entitled The Contender. However, Coggins’ blog is less expository and more a series of anecdotes that are both amusing and thought provoking. As he put it in a recent post “I’ve been writing about how men dress for years now. Generally, I encourage men to try harder and care more.” 

After humanity shrunk into isolation last Spring (the sensible ones, anyway) and 2020 started dragging on like Groundhog Day, Coggins and Williams decided to pal around together on the internet for our enjoyment. Thus became Central Division: a subscriber based Substack publishing a newsletter and podcast that also provides full access to both ACL and The Contender. Style and travel are the starting off points for these two gentlemen to expound their grand philosophy on life while having fun doing it. Their conversations are like listening to two sage philosophers that you met in a bar, already a few rounds deep.

Notoriety, and the financial gains that come with it, have not eluded Williams or Coggins but they have never let it dilute their integrity. Both men certainly could have chased greater financial gain by selling their souls to the marketing devils. Williams summed it up in an interview with Rescapement last year, “Don’t be a fucking sell out. If you do one good thing a week, and people really like it, that’s better than doing five shitty things a week. Just do good shit.” This integrity is exemplified by the format of their writing. Conventional trends like click-bait morsels and clunky SEO phrasing have been disregarded for intriguing prose and a studied publishing cadence. 

If you’re going to find style and leisure influence somewhere on the internet Central Division is a great place to start. However, both writers would probably cringe at the idea of being called an “influencer.” To anyone with good taste, that term has a bitter flavor to it these days but their influence is hard to miss. Williams has an impressive roster of fashion clients that he consults. Coggins was just named the first ever guest editor for L.L. Bean. Still, they represent the antithesis of a common self proclaimed “influencer.” Their shared goal is to promote ideas, not products or themselves. That is why they opted for a moderately priced subscription service so they can finance their endeavor without the sullying tinge of advertising.

While Williams and Coggins have done very well on their own, Central Division has proven to be greater than the sum of its parts. Their report and collective wisdom are a shining beacon for our tumultuous times. With humanity in the midst of a collective existential crisis, travel practically off limits, and the fashion industry in full rebuild mode, Central Division provides a mental safe space to consider our culture as it has been and how it ought to be. If there is one influence that these reluctant influencers would like to have, it is for all of us to just do good shit.

P.S. : While researching this article I stumbled upon a photo of the moment I met David Coggins at a 2016 book signing. I look far more awkward than I remember being at the time. So thanks for that, internet.

Sean Zanni /PMC

Moving Toward Genderless Fashion

A Case for Men to Ignore Gender Categories in Fashion

Vogue’s December Cover

“Any time you’re putting barriers up in your life, you’re limiting yourself,” advises Harry Styles on the December 2020 cover of Vogue Magazine. This pearl of wisdom may be valuable advice, but it is the accompanying photo that has made history. Styles has become the first ever male to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine solo. What’s more, he has done so wearing a gown paired with a tuxedo jacket. Printed over  his mid torso is the declaration “Harry Styles Makes His Own Rules.” These rules, along with the barriers referenced in his quote, probably apply to all aspects of Styles’s life. His is the kind of fame, wealth, and admiration that provides exemption from cultural norms and societal judgement. However, the most venerated fashion publication in the world and one of the most successful pop stars of this generation are making a very specific statement here: gender barriers in fashion have become obsolete.

The editors of Vogue and Mr. Styles want to make the fashion conscious public aware that gender categorization in the fashion industry is an artificial construct that makes most shoppers feel safe and allows them not to think too hard about what they put on. It also allows the industry creating our clothes to organize their inventory into tidy industrial spreadsheets. These categories, based on age old social norms, create a dividing line between what options each sex is provided by the fashion industry. As is far too often the case, style has become conflated with fashion. Fashion has rules created by various parties to serve their interests while style has no rules beyond personal self expression. 

BBC History of Men in Heels

Ostensibly, men’s and women’s fashion are two parallel lines that have evolved independently and flow on without intersection. In reality, these lines have merged, intersected, and crisscrossed so many times throughout history that they appear more like a toddler’s scribble with two crayons. Take the heel for example: heeled shoes began as a practical feature for riding horses, worn predominantly by men. Then by the twentieth century, exaggerated heels had become a female fashion until the late 1960s when platform shoes became popular for both sexes and heels circled back to where it started (just without the horses).

The glaring issue brought up by a man in a dress is the connection between sexuality and dressing outside of your gender norms. It is important to make the distinction here that style choices should be thought of independently from sexual preferences, despite the vast historical connections. Crossdressing and homosexulity have gone hand in hand for a very long time but modern society has progressed to a point where, regardless of who’s comfortable with it, sexuality exists on a spectrum. Not only should personal style be recognized in a similar spectrum, but the two spectrums should operate exclusively of each other. Now is the time to remove sexuality assumptions from wardrobe choices.

I’m not suggesting that men will or should start wearing dresses on a regular basis, only that it should be accepted as an option in social settings. In reality, crossing fashion gender lines has been and will continue to be much more subtle. Women have worn traditionally male garments for a couple generations now without society batting an eye. This transition makes sense because traditional male garments are almost universally more comfortable than their female counterparts. Blazers and slacks are business casual attire far better suited for getting work done than a dress. So with the reverse being true, men have seldom donned women’s clothing without trying to make a statement. 

Pendleton

While most women’s clothing has a prohibitive lack of functionality, it does offer more aesthetically fun options. There are more textures to play with. Fabrics often appear finer and feel softer. As a rule, men’s line designs are more aesthetically conservative across most fashion brands because that is what works for their target markets. Adventurous menswear designs don’t often sell well for mid-level fashion brands. When brands do take those chances, they only create a couple options per season and produce very limited runs. But women’s lines of the same brands carry a wide range of options in any given season that can provide a spark for any gentleman’s style. Take for example, this Pendleton women’s cardigan. Their men’s line does not offer anything resembling this sweater because the entire line is decidedly more conservative than the women’s line.

Gender is ingrained in the very bones of the fashion industry as it has existed until recently. Design teams are divided, rarely interacting on a creative level, and tasked with creating products within specific parameters. Until recently, every single item created by the fashion industry has been labeled as either male or female since it’s very conception. This system is enormous and unwieldy, barely functioning as it is, and any attempt at sweeping fundamental change is doomed to fail. Therefore, it is up to fashion consumers to remove gender distinctions from their own perspectives. The fashion industry’s gender categorization system isn’t going away any time soon, but it doesn’t have to if you simply choose to ignore it. 

Major fashion brands have pivoted their marketing to gender fluid wardrobes for years now. Thom Browne, one of the foremost names in the 2010s suiting renaissance, loves to mix dresses, blouses, and heels with tailored suiting. Gucci has established themselves as the most influential brand in fashion by mixing masculine and feminine attributes with a vintage tilt. New brands like Bode, Alex Mill, and Kardo have taken it a step further by making their lines gender neutral from the beginning. As start-ups, they are unencumbered by the gender categorized infrastructure that allows conventional brands to function. 

Teen Vogue

The previous decade saw a golden age in menswear that made it requisite for American men to care about fashion. A resurgence in classic workwear, fine tailoring, and robust facial hair ironically caused an atmosphere of hyper masculinity in men’s fashion. Many important lessons were learned like the importance of grooming, how a suit should fit, and how to spot good denim but some old stereotypes were further solidified in the process. The emergent dismissal of gender categories can be seen as the next step in menswear’s progression. (Streetwear, with its gender neutrality, deserves credit for bridging the gap.) Now that we’ve learned the importance of style in self expression, it’s time to open ourselves up to everything fashion has to offer rather than limit ourselves to items categorized as menswear.

Us mere mortals can’t just live life by our own rules like rockstar Harry Styles. Most of us would probably end up ostracized by our peers, if not in jail. However, we can live by the sage advice Mr. Styles provides on the cover of Vogue. Don’t limit your style by adhering to the gender barriers put up by fashion. If something looks fun, sparks your interest, or helps you express yourself in any way, rock it with confidence. Cause when you do, and you’re making it work, you’re spreading the Gospel according to Harry.