Going out to battle for freedom and truth

November 14, 2011 12:41 AM

Look at my fucking red trousers! "A collection of photographs in celebration of the vibrant and burgeoning red-trousered communities of London and elsewhere."
posted by Abiezer (89 comments total)

So this seems to be either tatty posh gentlemen with a predilection for deep pink or skinny east end boys with legs like a couple of peperami? Just checking.
posted by Summer at 12:55 AM on November 14, 2011

I have no idea how these blerks got their legs wedged into red kegs, or why.
posted by Abiezer at 12:58 AM on November 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Le pantalon rouge, c'est la France!
posted by Skeptic at 1:01 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

if this is wrong, who wants to be right?
posted by mannequito at 1:04 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Jokes aside, it can't be underestimated how much current men's clothing owes to military wear, conscription and two world wars. In this light, and considering the thousands of French soldiers killed because of that most unfortunate choice of colour in the early days of WWI, it's easy to understand why, for a whole century, the "pantalon rouge" has become such a sartorial taboo for anybody but a few particularly unselfconscious upper-class twats.
posted by Skeptic at 1:14 AM on November 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

skinny east end boys

They wish! Dull upper class wasters.
posted by communicator at 1:48 AM on November 14, 2011

Good for them, wearing red trousers. More guys should get their inner peacock out in public.

Wait, that doesn't sound quite right... either way, I applaud anyone who dresses the way they feel like, damn the cybertorpedoes.
posted by Kattullus at 2:31 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

HA! I know the guy named Mr. Strange. Thanks for making my day, Abiezer.
posted by Goofyy at 2:32 AM on November 14, 2011

They all look like the bottom half of Santa Claus to me.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:34 AM on November 14, 2011

it can't be underestimated how much current men's clothing owes to military wear

Next in men's fashion: Coats of the Royal Canadian Mounties.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:40 AM on November 14, 2011

Dame Memory, that feckless tart, could be misfiring, but I believe I have never worn a pair of trousers in a shade other than black, grey, blue or brown. I regret the brown deeply, but I was a mere child at the time and not in full control of my sartorial decisions (amongst other things). I suppose I ought to regret the skin-tight black PVC keks too, but I refuse to. It was 1977 for pity's sake. And I was skinny.

Oh wait... many years ago there was, I regret to say, a pair of what I believe are referred to as "khakis". That purchase happened as a result of my company instituting the dreaded "Casual Friday" nonsense, which stipulated nevertheless that jeans were unacceptable. I bought the offending trousers at M&S (or some similar temple of insipid middle class propriety) and compounded the error by not trying them on first. When I got home and did so I never even got as far as fastening the button before making an involuntary gagging noise, removing the foul items with as much speed and revulsion as if I'd soiled them, hurling them into the deepest recess of my wardrobe and never touching the things again until the day, many years later, when I had the sense to put them into one of those charity clothes boxes. Khakis. Ugh. UGH.

Red trousers strike me very much as being in the same category as red braces (UK meaning) or those oh-so-amusing ties with silly pictures on them that a certain class of business wanker used to be fond of wearing. The message seems to be, "Look at me. Look again. See this one slightly wacky thing I'm wearing? That means that beneath this otherwise dull and staid outer wear there lurks a rebel, a mischievous scamp, a fun guy. You probably ought to consider shagging me, you delightful filly. Come on. You know you want to. Didn't you notice the trousers?"

So in summary, I hate each and every one of these tossers.
posted by Decani at 2:52 AM on November 14, 2011 [15 favorites]

Good for them, wearing red trousers. More guys should get their inner peacock out in public.

Wait, that doesn't sound quite right... either way, I applaud anyone who dresses the way they feel like, damn the cybertorpedoes.

I'm with you on this one. Now the red trouser thing will become a fully fledged 'thing' - people will look for it and sneer at people on the street, hatred levels will increase over something exceptionally trivial and the world will become a fractionally less pleasant place.
posted by Summer at 3:00 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

I was totally into red pants before any of these guys.
posted by deanc at 3:18 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Not those trousers, Jeeves. Give me the jolly red ones."
posted by villanelles at dawn at 3:20 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

RED PANTS is an anagram of DARN PEST.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:29 AM on November 14, 2011

"Not those trousers, Jeeves. Give me the jolly red ones."

I refuse to believe that Bertie Wooster, even at his most sartorially misguided, would entertain the notion of wearing red trousers. While one can understand the odd attraction of a white jacket, especially after a few stiff ones and facing the prospect of meeting Aunt Agatha, or even of a spiffy Alpine hat in a windy November afternoon, Bertie would have had to go completely bananas before putting on an item of clothing which would cause even the hardiest waiters in Cannes to spill their G&Ts and drive Aunt Dahlia's cook Alphonse into a murderous frenzy. That is a line no Wooster would tread, villanelles.
posted by Skeptic at 3:48 AM on November 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

That's some great taggting you've done there.
posted by litleozy at 3:51 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I felt the seriousness of the subject called for nothing less, litleozy.
posted by Abiezer at 3:53 AM on November 14, 2011

I love the red trousers - easier to spot the fuckers from my grassy knoll.
posted by dprs75 at 3:56 AM on November 14, 2011

I hate each and every one of these tossers

Typical class hatred from the lumpenproles.

One of the benefits of the glorious British civilization - a civilization that, perhaps foolishly, suckled to its welcoming bosom the traitorous viper Decani - is that it has assured each Britisher the ancient right to wear trousers of whatsoever hue most pleaseth him.

His Majesty King Edward III himself granted this right to all his subjects when he shat his white pantaloons and left a stain of Royal Brown upon them, and thence said unto his retching court, honi soit qui mal y pense, which is French for, "I wish I'd worn a darker shade of panty".

Nowadays Britain is assailed at every corner by protest, European fiscal laxity and terrorismo, and only GOD and HER MAJESTY sit between Albion and perfidy. Hateful Decanus, who trembles his wagging member at every Baronet, and sneers at their leg-claddings, must be executed forthwith.

Drag him by his dull-covered legs to the Tower and chop, julienne and dice his foul head from his revolting body, says I. And also Abiezer, the trecherous instigator of this colour-detesting FPP. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 3:57 AM on November 14, 2011 [29 favorites]

In 1829, the blue pants of French soldiers were replaced with bright red pants dyed with madder, grown in Provence. Unfortunately, this audacious color transformed the French soldiers into visible targets on the battlefield.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:02 AM on November 14, 2011

Ack, red it already.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:06 AM on November 14, 2011

Oh Skeptic, ever the hidebound and reactionary. It'd take a chap of stronger fiber than old Bertram to resist a pair of red trousers of the sort which, I'll have you know, were all the rage back in Newport. So tut! Tut to you with knobs on!
posted by villanelles at dawn at 4:13 AM on November 14, 2011

twoleftfeet, looks like you're for the tower too. "Chop chop" for the chop-chop, you bi-sinisteropod, you.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:13 AM on November 14, 2011

Ack, red it already.

You are dyed to me, twoleftfeet
posted by Skeptic at 4:28 AM on November 14, 2011

Conspicuous absence of metallic red vinyl pants.
British clubwear vendors need to step up to the plate. :)
posted by -harlequin- at 4:34 AM on November 14, 2011

You can't spell Pantone without Pants.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:54 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

You can do a lot of things without pants.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 5:02 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I like The Blue better than Red It.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:02 AM on November 14, 2011

villanelles I'm afraid that your colonial spelling of the word "fibre" reveals you as an impostor, utterly inadequate to proffer any opinion on "What the Well-Dressed Young Man is Wearing", as discussed by Bertram W. Wooster in "Milady's Boudoir". You probably even wear cowboy boots and one of those dreadful hats.
posted by Skeptic at 5:03 AM on November 14, 2011

needs "nantucketts" tag - you can't leave us colonials out.
posted by JPD at 5:06 AM on November 14, 2011

Us colonials can testify, the best red trousers are actually pink.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 5:08 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of the time I was marooned with Carmine. Even after an evening of burgundy and salmon, I still still couldn't touch her titian cherry.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:14 AM on November 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

I was expecting trousers in shades of maroon and dark red. Not what I'd wear, but somber and dignified at least. But these guys are wearing RED pants, or maybe that should be FUCKING RED pants. Even if they are total tossers, I have to give them credit for having the balls to wear something far more decorative and distinctive than most men I know will ever wear in their entire lives.

I mean, I'm pretty sure that every single piece of clothing I own fits into about four or five shades of color. A few pieces of black, lots of earthy greens and blues, a few browns... that's about it, really, including socks. I think men in the US feel particularly constrained on this front; in a lot of places I have traveled to (I'm thinking especially of parts of Africa) it is unexceptional for men to wear bright colors, unusual cuts, and odd fabrics.
posted by Forktine at 5:24 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The phenomenon of upper class men in crazy coloured trousers is one I never get tired off. Sometimes I hang around in St James' just to spot one.

Mustard is my favourite, or maybe salmon pink, but I will take red at push. Especially matched with a tweed jacket.
posted by Helga-woo at 5:28 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Even if they are total tossers, I have to give them credit for having the balls to wear something far more decorative and distinctive than most men I know will ever wear in their entire lives.

Distinctive? Not among Dutch frat boys.
posted by Skeptic at 5:31 AM on November 14, 2011

Quoting directly from the Hackett website:

"This season classic colours are the thing, so why not consider a navy or red trousers, perfect with a Hackett white shirt."

For the majority of the people pictured, the seemingly garish red is only the very slightest of slight deviations from the usual uniform. These people shop in the same places, that deliberately target this sort of public school foppishness.
posted by roofus at 5:31 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

In the US of A, we wear flag pants, in case we're ever invaded and there's no time to go to the Walmart to buy a flag, we can just raise our pants up on a standard to let the commies know who they're messing with.

Also, what the hell are trousers? Are they some kind of quaint British gardening tool?
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:33 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

During my time in Cambridge, red trousers tended to suggest a particular kind of Tory, the kind connected with the country rather than the city, the sort of people who prefer Downton Abbey to the banks.
posted by honest knave at 5:33 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Howard Wolowitz approves.
posted by tommasz at 5:34 AM on November 14, 2011

google image search golf slacks
posted by bukvich at 5:37 AM on November 14, 2011

Occupy Sloane Square!
posted by villanelles at dawn at 5:37 AM on November 14, 2011

Also this person has a blog dedicated to the subject of weird golf pants.
posted by bukvich at 5:40 AM on November 14, 2011

I have a couple pairs of golf pants, but there's a hole in one.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:46 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Longjohns are often red. I don't understand why long underwear should ever be red.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:59 AM on November 14, 2011

Aunt Dahlia's cook Alphonse into a murderous frenzy

Aunt Dahlia sainted chef Anatole can take a few smooths with a rough, it is true, but he would think you as mad as some March hatters for calling him Alphonse. Expect his notice by second delivery, forward any post to the Bull and Bush, Market Snodsbury.
posted by howfar at 6:10 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

*points to the Other, laughs*
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:29 AM on November 14, 2011

I don't understand why long underwear should ever be red

Thou hast ne'er suffered through the twinsome horror of chilblains and rectal bleeding?

By the nipplering of Christ, I thought this was a website for the compassionate.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:38 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Longjohns are often red. I don't understand why long underwear should ever be red.

Paradoxical undressing. Those in the throes of severe hypothermia are often impelled to strip down to the bare essentials.

An Arctic explorer in red underwear is more visible than one in white.

I just made this bollocks up but if someone ever asks you, you now have an answer. (It may be true.)
posted by run"monty at 6:39 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I knew a bloke in Uni who always wore red trousers - he was known then, and forever more as Johnny Red Pants.

That is all.
posted by zeoslap at 6:40 AM on November 14, 2011

I don't understand why long underwear should ever be red

Third in a continuing series of explanations

Ay lad, for red be the colour of romance, 'tis as the folk song doth tell:

"Ruddy red pants speaketh love most true /
Thus I shall wear for my darling! /
And she shall wear panties baby-blue - /
And we shall get pissed on six pints of Carling! /
That is the way of the passionate young- /
Hey nonny noe, fa la la la la! /
Fucken hell gorgeous, give us some tongue /
Oi right *burp* nah you won't get pregnant if you have a toke on this spliff
Yeah awight darling check out my bell end waah hey!"

So that is your answer right there.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:49 AM on November 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

"Look at me. Look again. See this one slightly wacky thing I'm wearing? That means that beneath this otherwise dull and staid outer wear there lurks a rebel, a mischievous scamp, a fun guy. You probably ought to consider shagging me, you delightful filly. Come on. You know you want to. Didn't you notice the trousers?"

QFT. DC saw a rash of Nantucket Reds last summer, competing with seersucker and bowties for the sanctioned-one-slightly-wacky-thing honors on Capitol Hill.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:51 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

'There is a peculiar notion that elegant plumage, and fine feathers are not proper for the male. When aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaact-ually. That is the way things are in mo-o-ost species.'

...but still, tossers.
posted by MtDewd at 6:57 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have tight red trousers. I had to order them from London. They make people gasp when I wear them. They make me happy.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 7:00 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I own a pair of Nantucket Red shorts. As well as a pair of excellent aquamarine shorts. I do have some out-of-the-main trousers, though - white, pinstriped. I fear I will be unable to wear them in my new home - the climate and fashion here are to my taste.

I am interested to learn about the 'taboo' against red trousers, though. Thank you all.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:09 AM on November 14, 2011

Us colonials can testify, the best red trousers are actually pink.


Testify, Eddie:

I went downtown last night, was gonna dig a show
When I passed a display window of a big department store
Well I looked inside this window, man, all filled up with racks
And down there near the bottom was a cra-a-a-azy pair of slacks!

I gotta have 'em, yeah, I need 'em for this cat
How can I go cattin' without them crazy pink peg slacks?

I walked up to the salesman, I said, Mister I'm flat broke
But I gotta have them pink slacks! He said, Man is this a joke?
Well I asked him how much money, He said, Add up four and eight
He said, Man them pants is crazy pink rayon acetate

I gotta have 'em, yeah, I need 'em for this cat
How can I go cattin' without them crazy pink peg slacks?

I went to see my baby, asked her for some dough. She said,
You know I love you honey, but what you need this money for?
I told her about them peggers that I found across downtown
She got a sawbuck from her daddy, and I turned my Ford around

I gotta have 'em, yeah, I need 'em for this cat
How can I go cattin' without them crazy pink peg slacks?

I skid my Ford into a stop, rushed into the store
I said, Man I got a sawbuck, he said, You need two bucks more
I said, What's the matter, can't I charge it?
He said, Man, we don't get these things for free!
I said, Mister you just don't understand what these pink peggers mean to me!

Yeah, I gotta have 'em, yeah, I need 'em for this cat
How can I go cattin' without them cra-a-a-azy pink peg slacks?

-- Eddie Cochran, "Pink Peg Slacks"
 
posted by Herodios at 7:17 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have red trousers as well. It helps me find them in the dark, when I need to make a quick getaway after totally having sex on a lady.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:29 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Lands End has been trying to sell red pants to men for the past few years.

Mr. Moonpie's WP link explains why, I suppose. It all falls into place:

1. Red pants as Nantucket yacht club wear -- a social status marker, but unsuitable to wear in any other context.

2. Sell red casual pants to people who wish to imply that they are part of that set.

3. Sell red not-so causual pants to people who wish to imply that, "I rushed to the office directly from my yacht, didn't have time to change, and just threw a blazer on over what I was wearing while I was out sailing with the Kennedys".

4. You're so vain, you probably think these pants are about you.
 
posted by Herodios at 7:32 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have no need for red trousers, for I am a baboon, with a bright red anus and genitalia. A big shout-out from the other members of my troop, by the way - they really enjoy metafilter, and when I log in to the site, they often fling their feces right at my laptop screen. Not all that dissimilar to y'all.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 7:39 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

darn - just remembered - myhuman went to a party in cannes once and he wore all red - look really good - so I am onside with the red or dead thing. As long as trousers are held properly up by belt and I cannot see some skanky pants lurking underneath.
posted by dprs75 at 7:58 AM on November 14, 2011

I just saw this, for the first time, in my office today. Imagine my surprise when I come to MetaFilter and find a link all about it.
posted by a47danger at 8:01 AM on November 14, 2011

The comments in this post at the "Stuff Dutch People Like" blog explain how the red trousers fad is indeed connected to the Nantucket Reds, their use by the wealthy yachting set, and their extension to assorted wannabes on both sides of the Atlantic.
posted by Skeptic at 8:18 AM on November 14, 2011

Hateful Decanus, who trembles his wagging member at every Baronet, and sneers at their leg-claddings, must be executed forthwith.

Drag him by his dull-covered legs to the Tower and chop, julienne and dice his foul head from his revolting body, says I.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 11:57 AM on November 14

That's fighting talk, you bounder! Geoffrey? Fetch me my trousers at once! No, not those red ones, you impertinent cur!
posted by Decani at 8:23 AM on November 14, 2011

I don't understand all of the hate in here. Sure, some of those guys look like tools, but others -- like this guy -- are awesome and clearly know what they're doing.
posted by asnider at 8:29 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh he knows what's he doing, he's wondering what he did to get himself kicked off Steve Zissou's boat.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:42 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am heartily in favour of these guys.

While there are all sorts of messed-up issues surrounding how women are expected to look, they at least get to pick a load of different styles and to wear colour occasionally. Below the waist, men get trousers that are black, navy blue, or perhaps brown. Pale blue might be permitted if they're casual denim jeans and you're feeling particularly racy.

So there probably is an element of "look at me, I'm zany!!one!" for some of these guys, opting to have eye-catching clothing in lieu of an actual personality. But for at least some of them, they're wearing bright (red) clothes because, damnit, they feel like it and they think it looks good. Yay them!
posted by metaBugs at 8:52 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thom Yorke approves.
posted by Windigo at 9:02 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thom Yorke approves.

Hipster toff Thom Yorke? You astound me.
posted by howfar at 9:04 AM on November 14, 2011

I've never understood the older English toff RT phenomenon. These guys are unrelentingly conformist in their dress, and suspect any man who dresses with taste or effort of being probably homosexual. And yet they break out pants in the most outrageously camp shades - cerise, strawberry and acid mustard. As long as the colour is a bit dusty and the gusset comfortably saggy, anything goes. My theory is that it started as an in-joke pulled off on their customers by the gentlemen's outfitters of Savile Row.
posted by UnreliableNarrator at 9:14 AM on November 14, 2011

That's fighting talk, you bounder!

Yea, and thus didst Decani and quidnunc resolve to fight a joust, and all throughout the Kingdom each man didst take sides in the debate, and placed bets upon the results, and gave unsolicited managerial advice to their friends in the public ale house, as was their wont. And Decani and quidnunc didst don their fine armor, and took each to his side a lance most pointy, and sate upon a horse and rode unto the field of jousting.

THE BALLADE OF THE JOUST OF THE KNIGHTS SIR DECANI AND SIR QUIDNUNC

Fa-la-la-la and a nonny-nonny-hey,
Two knights did ride forth to battle one day!
Sir Decani the fair, whose trousers were of gold,
Sought sir quidnunc, that him he might scold!

And when they met, upon the jousting field
Sir quidnunc his red pantaloons revealed!
For cowardly sir q had pissed himself a flood,
And he had a urinary tract infection, which mixed his pee with blood.
Fa-la-la-la, and a hey-nonny-nud!
posted by the quidnunc kid at 9:17 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

That website gives me a headache.
posted by newdaddy at 9:57 AM on November 14, 2011

Alexis Petridis in The Guardian: "Whose bright idea was this?"
posted by iviken at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2011

From that article: "Similarly, menswear has taken a utilitarian turn recently: denim, workwear, the notion that we should dress like lumberjacks (definite hint of 'I want Hitler back' about that)."

Nothing says "Nazi" like plaid, apparently.
posted by twirlip at 10:27 AM on November 14, 2011

Quidnunc sir, you have tamed my savage beast... I mean breast... with your minstrelsy poesy. I propose a truce in this legging-hue-based conflict. Flagons of mead and buxom wenches all round. Hoorah!
posted by Decani at 10:30 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

But these guys are wearing RED pants, or maybe that should be FUCKING RED pants. Even if they are total tossers, I have to give them credit for having the balls to wear something far more decorative and distinctive than most men I know will ever wear in their entire lives.

This is a photo of my five year old son in his favorite red pants. He would wear red pants every day if he could - I've been able to find him three pair (one Boden (in the photo), one H&M, and one pair of bright red cords from H&M). He loves to wear bright colors and gets irked when the reds and oranges and purples and electric greens are all in the wash. (Although sometimes he does let me put him in blue. But only if it's cool enough.)

I really, really, really hope this trend carries over into his adult years. Because it's awesome.
posted by anastasiav at 11:22 AM on November 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I, a female, had some red trousers once upon a time, and whilst wearing them one day was asked if I was a member of some guru cult, a real cult that required all of its members to dress in red. I never wore them again.
posted by mareli at 12:24 PM on November 14, 2011

Ah, was ever thus...

Give Me My Yellow Hose

When I was a bachelor,
I led a merry life,
But now I am a married man,
And troubled with a wife.
I cannot do as I have done,
Because I live in fear;
If I but go to Islington,
My wife is watching there.
Give me my yellow hose again,
Give me my yellow hose
For now my wife she watcheth me,
See yonder where she goes.

You'd have to replace Islington with Hoxton Town, I guess, but otherwise stet.

Devonian (proudly black of hose and dark of doublet)
posted by Devonian at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

When I first moved to San Francisco I was struck by the natives' Ford-like clothing: any colour, as long as it's black. I immediately laid in a supply of coloured trousers (including red) and paisely shirts.

One of these days I shall wear a paisely shirt with the red pants.
posted by phliar at 1:38 PM on November 14, 2011

Oh, you want to hear it too? (May contain shawms, flutes and an extraordinarily adenoidal singer: his lack of lemon trews is unlikely to be the only thing holding him back from extra-marital dalliance)
posted by Devonian at 1:38 PM on November 14, 2011

Wow, I had no idea red pants were a Thing. I wear red pants because I like red, and anyone who can say the words "sartorial taboo" with a straight face can go get stuffed.
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:59 PM on November 14, 2011

This post and thread are completely nonsense to me. It reminds of nothing so much as the time I tried to watch British Parliament on CSPAN while under the influence of psilocybic mushrooms.
posted by LiteOpera at 3:57 PM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

So, what? I have a pair of red trousers from like 10 lbs. ago.
It's the middle-aged germans in their ochre-bordering-on-heinz-mustard pants that actually irk me.
posted by _dario at 5:12 PM on November 14, 2011

I have a feeling that some of us here are like me, in agreeing that colors are wonderful for any occasion.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:11 PM on November 14, 2011

I don't know much about what red pants are supposed to say about a person. And unencumbered by any such cultural awareness, my purely aesthetic reaction is that red pants definitely can work.

Not all of them look good, but this guy? Fuck yeah. He radiates a confident, cartoon-supervillain sprezzatura that Julian Assange can only dream on. One look at him and you just know he has a weather control device concealed on an experimental airship somewhere. And on a more practical level, I think this really works, too, as does Windigo's Thom Yorke shot.

So yeah, thumbs up to red pants from me. Probably won't be picking up a pair anytime soon, though.
posted by kprincehouse at 10:37 PM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

You know, I need to buy some new jeans... maybe I should get red trousers instead.....
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 11:28 PM on November 14, 2011

New theory: Perhaps they're all members of the (US) Dennis the Menace fan club.
 
posted by Herodios at 6:16 AM on November 15, 2011

I can't say much.

I once had turquoise pegged trousers as part of an 80's clubbing ensemble which also included a sleeveless white and turquoise asymmetric closure shirt and white Capezio dance shoes.
posted by Samizdata at 8:56 AM on November 15, 2011

Thank goodness for link preview on the "Preview your Thread" page. Of course someone would have already posted it.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:37 AM on November 15, 2011

Since seeing this post the other day I have become keenly aware of male wearers of red trousers around the campus where I teach. The combination of red trousers and navy-blue upper (be it coat, jumper, whatever) is standard though not universal.

Of course, most of the people on campus are students, so it's hardly surprising that most of the red-trouser-wearers I've noticed are, too. But walking up the stairs on Thursday I found myself following a 60ish, somewhat jowly professor with iron-grey hair... and red trousers. The words bypassed my conscious mind and escaped, mercifully at low volume: Look at my fucking red trousers.

But I think it was audible, all the same. There was no-one else on the stairs, and he turned and gave me a Look as we got to the next landing.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 1:29 PM on November 19, 2011 [2 favorites]