Been buying corduroy pants recently. First ones I’ve had in over a decade. I’m buying colors that are not the same old black/grey/navy/brown that are soooooo common. (Nothing’s wrong with common, I’m just not acquiescing to dour winter color palates right now.). So online I’ve gone!
The first two were a wine and a fairly bright green. I also tracked down a bright sapphire blue and an amethyst purple.
The last color was actually the hardest to find. I mean, I could FIND “purple”, but a lot had attributes I didn’t want. I was looking for a plum or deep amethyst, but many were paler colors like lilac and lavender. I was looking for straight legs, but apparently, flares are coming back. Flat fronts are what I prefer, but the first I found passing the previous tests were pleated.
I finally found something that ticked every box from an upscale clothier in England…with ties to some royal clients. They were even on sale! BUT they were button fly, and getting a zipper fly was something like a $20 option. They also didn’t have my length in stock, so getting a custom length would have also been another $20+. And then the shipping…another $30.
All totaled, $200 for purple cords- even apparently high quality ones- seemed a bit of a splash for a first purchase. If I bought more stuff from them, the shipping stayed the same and might have even been free, but they don’t do “inexpensive.”
Finally found something cheaper and ordered them. Now I just have to see how everything stands up.
Amusingly, after having the wine & green cords (identical products in different colors) altered, I decided to wear the wine ones first. I thought I had somehow packed on 10lbs because they barely fit! The green ones had fit perfectly in the waist at the tailor’s so it was CLEARLY a me issue. Turns out, it was sort of a me issue, but not the one I thought. I didn’t realize when I ordered them that they had a stealth adjustable waist, ad the wine ones had shipped out with about 1”+ less room. But I didn’t figure that out until much later.
After I FLEXED MY MUSCLES to get them on and wore them all day, it took me a few minutes to figure out what had happened. I’ve never had pants made like this, so actually adjusting them took some doing as well. Actually, TBH, I’m not 100% sure how I did it- I was looking at & manipulating the waistband they suddenly “slipped” and had a bit more space.