The Couple That Shares Trousers Together
We first discovered the Kojima Work Trousers on a trip to London, stopping in Niwaki’s petite Chiltern Street location for a browse. Niwaki is an English brand that produces mostly high-end gardening tools in Japan, but it also makes a collection of workwear suited for putting those tools to use.
The day we stopped into the shop, my wife, Erin, tried on a pair of the Kojima trousers and loved them so much she wore them out of the store. I fell in love soon after, and we started to share, passing the pants back and forth for months. After enough squabbling on who had first dibs, I caved and bought my own pair in the next size up for when I wanted a looser silhouette. Now, there are many occasions where we both leave the house wearing the same pants. We call them our “family pants.”
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Cut from a 12-ounce mid-weight Japanese denim with a scant and imperceptible 2 percent stretch, they look like a proper pair of trousers but feel like sweatpants. The denim has a looser weave and a bit of openness to it, so the pants feel breathable; you could almost wear them year-round. They’re too robust for the dense humidity of a Charleston summer, but they get plenty of wear in early spring, fall, and winter. While indigo-dyed, they don’t lose much color — we’ve washed them many times. The knife pleats make for a full, straight leg with a good drape — my gateway to a roomier pant that still reads clean. The pockets are deep and ample, made to stow gardening tools, but just as useful for storing a sippy cup for our 6-year old.
They feel very modern with a sort of minimal tailoring look, but in denim, which is something that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Erin finds them flattering because they fit nicely on her waist, so they look great with a tucked-in shirt from her line, E.M. Reitz. I typically wear them with the same combination, reaching for a navy-blue button-up shirt, paired with a navy belt for a tonal look that reads classic but modern. They can be fancied up with a pair of loafers or worn casually with a beat-up pair of Chuck Taylors. In the last few months, I’ve worn them to a party downtown celebrating the launch of Chris Black’s clothing line, Hanover, and also wore them to a gathering uptown to celebrate Ruthie Rogers’s recent book, hosted at Bloomberg Philanthropies. In both cases, I looked appropriate.
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