PPL—please help! - YouLookFab Forum

We are having a hard time finding pants that fit the dress code for my son’s new school—NO sweatpants, and they must be grey & “smart”. His calves are big, his thighs aren’t small, but once we find a pair that fit those places, the waist is always too big.

This is the best we have found so far, and we are arguing about them. He says that once the waist is fixed, they will be higher on his body and thus too short. I’m not sure. Looking at these pix (& looking past all the stuff on the floor!), what do you think? 1 is how they fit now. 2 is with pants pulled up to what he says would be the right waist level. 3 is also not a great shot, but the pose might show how the rise, etc work for him. Between the 3, I hope you can get a composite of how the fit.

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4 years ago

April

Veteran

My son would say if they're a touch short, cuff them even shorter.

Might that be an option?

Kathie

It’s hard to tell, since the first picture is a bit blurry. The rise seems off- perhaps too long, so it might be hard to get the fit right. I’d take him to a professional tailor, to get some advice as to whether these can be altered successfully. Or, I’d keep looking, since it’s not clear that he’d like these, even with the waist altered.

Bijou

Fashintern I would go for longer because he is still growing and if he thinks they may be too short now, then with another inch of growth he may rebel and not want to wear them. Can he wear jeans because you can usually buy them online with the waist and leg measurements provided to get a perfect fit off the rack.

My goodness, I would love to have his issue, being too tall and having a tiny waist! However I do sympathise, my DS is very lean and has this issue too. At the moment his school uniform has elastic in the waist to allow the width to be adjusted.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

They will be a little short after waist definition. Have you tried a belt?

I'm with April. If they're a little too short - cuff them shorter.

Joy

I was also going to suggest a tailor and agree with Bijou that the rise looks off in these and that he may grow more.

slim cat

It seems he is really pulling the pants high ( too high I'd say ).
Agree with suggestion of visiting the professional tailor.
At one point my tailor let the hem out with stitching done over the previously folded edge of the fabric and it worked for me.
Good luck with growing kid' clothes - always complicated.

rachylou

I think Bijou makes a good point.

Vildy

Men's pants are traditionally made so that taking a triangular slice out of the back seam will let them fit properly. Try this: either with pins or safety pins or failing those then binder clips (with pants worn inside out for those)

and take in the rear so that it fits better but also watch out for how close

this makes the back pockets come together. Start with a tiny bit nearer

the back crotch seam and keep widening until you reach the waistband area.

Runcarla

Lululemon makes a very smart stretchy men’s pant with a 37 in inseam called the ABC pant. They come in lots of colours. DH 6ft 2 and DS’s 6ft 3 and 6ft 4.5 are fans - despite different builds. One DS has a muscular build at 215-220lbs one - the tall one is super slender at 165 lbs.

Lands’ end is a good source of smart men’s pants in a variety of fits, sizes, and lengths.

My experience is, if they don’t like it, they won’t wear it!

Dagmar O

Active Member

Banana Republic has a menswear line line called Mason Athletic fit. My son, who is built like a strong hockey player with very muscular calves and thighs, skaters' tush and small waist in addition to being 6' finds this fit very comfortable. He also loves the Lululemon pants mentioned by Runcarla.

https://shop.lululemon.com/p/m.....olor=32476

Here’s a link.

Stagiaire Fash

Lots of voices of experience here—thank you all!

Dagmar O, your son’s build sounds similar to my son’s. Thanks for both recommendations. Which of those pants do you think lasts longer? The Lululemon that you and Carla recommend are expensive enough that I’d want him to literally get over 100 wears per pair, which would take him just about to graduation.

Bijou, I was rolling my eyes at his complaints over having an “hourglass” figure, the type women are told we “should” have. Jeans are not permitted—and I haven’t been able to get him to wear them anyway; they’re too stiff.

Joy, Bijou, RL, good point about the growing young man.

April & Angie, we could try that, and keep these as his “6th day of the week” pair, in case he goes through his usuals faster than expected.

Kathie & Slim Cat, I don’t think he held them up very well either; it was hard to get him to stand still so I could see!

Vildy, that sounds like an easy fix, if we choose to get them tailored.

Runcarla, thanks for the link. I think these, on the German site, are the same. Do you agree? https://www.lululemon.de/en-de.....olor=38438

Dagmar O, so far i can only find the BR pants with a 34 inseam. Where do you get the talls?

Fashionintern, my son recently graduated University and is in his first job. He wears both the BR and the Lululemon to work on casual Fridays with a blazer. Because they both have stretch in them, they wash or dry clean well. The BR pants also used to come in a stretch wool dress pant which was just discontinued and which he wore to death. He had to size up on the Lululemon's for his calves but finds those to be extremely comfortable (and I have to say, they look very smart). His per wear cost on both of these lines is next to nothing because they are both well made and are lasting forever.

I actually just checked with my son to ensure I am giving you the correct info. In the Lulu's, he wears the Commissioner model in Classic fit (33Tall - he sized up from 32 to accommodate his legs more comfortably.). As he is just a regular tall at 6', length is less of an issue for us than athletic fit. In the BR Mason, line click on tall fit as opposed to Regular fit and you will see 36" length

There are 2 Lulu stores in Berlin. It might be worth your while to have your son try some of their styles. The menfolk in my family tried on what was in store, but then ordered on line since the store we went to did not have the long inseam. There will be a bit more length in the rise of a tall size, but this worked particularly well for the muscular DS - who has well developed glutes and thighs from his sports and weight training. Unless your son is jumping fences or crawling home on his hands and knees (don’t ask) the pants should last.

When my brothers were in school, they had 2 pair of uniform trousers each and rotated through them. We girls wore tunics. I figure 42 weeks of school x 5 days / 2 pair = 100+ wears per pair in one year.

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