The UK magazine Country Life has an article on corduroy pants, which it calls the perfect country trouser. Although the piece waxes on the varied colors available, it appears that most Brits are only comfortable in subdued hues. The ability to wear go-to-hell pants may be a privilege of being American.
Here’s a snippet:
A hundred miles north in Edinburgh, the writer Alexander McCall Smith is such a fan that he’s written a ‘Corduroy Mansions’ series of novels as well as name-checking the fabric in his ‘44 Scotland Street’ stories, where, alongside ‘crushed strawberry’, the material appears in ‘distressed outmeal’ and ‘mitigated beige’.
‘There’s a very interesting question about the colour of corduroy that you wear,’ states Mr McCall Smith (Country Life, March 2, 2016). ‘Red makes a statement: in Edinburgh, red trousers are worn on the northern side of Princes Street, but you don’t really see them on the south.’
Admitting to ‘having worn crushed strawberry from time to time, and I have also got a darker red, which I wear at our house in Argyll – it’s very remote, so you’re effectively wearing them in private’, the author adds that ‘they’re also very good trousers to wear when you’re reading Country Life’.
It is far from Princes Street, either north or south, however, that you’ll find arguably the world’s greatest selection, in the subterranean menswear department of Cordings of Piccadilly, London W1. Stretched before you like the colours of the rainbow, this is to a cord lover what Graceland is to fans of Elvis.
I’ve a pair of red RL cords and wearing them on Christmas felt appropriate. They’re an even red, not too light and not too deep, but the color was called “sportsman orange” on the label. Either sportsmen are colorblind or I am.
I enjoy the corduroy trouser offerings from Cordings in the UK. While not called “Go To Hell” pants, they certainly fit the bill! However, since the Brits are gearing up for the Cheltenham Festival you probably won’t find too many people wearing such colors; they’re all in for tweeds at present. Tally Ho!
I’ve a pair of red RL cords and wearing them on Christmas felt appropriate. They’re an even red, not too light and not too deep, but the color was called “sportsman orange” on the label. Either sportsmen are colorblind or I am.
I love them, thanks for sharing!
I own cords in royal blue, maroon, brown and fire engine red. Love them!
I enjoy the corduroy trouser offerings from Cordings in the UK. While not called “Go To Hell” pants, they certainly fit the bill! However, since the Brits are gearing up for the Cheltenham Festival you probably won’t find too many people wearing such colors; they’re all in for tweeds at present. Tally Ho!
I’ve been enjoying my Joseph Turner cords in maroon, moss and dark chestnut this winter.