The Khakis Quest
A Proof by Contradiction
And an argument for high quality clothes. Because shopping today is so dismal.
Back in the day it went without saying that women’s khakis were 100% cotton and made in the USA. The only real challenge was to find the right cut. I have had a great many pairs over the years in a variety of styles – pleats, plain front, tapered leg, wide leg. To think back to the details about which I moaned now seems like folly. I would kill to have those minor “problems” today. (I am looking at you, pleats.)
I spend (waste) hours in search of women’s khakis these days, each new season bringing a false hope of manufacturers/vendors getting their act together and offering a decent product. Virtually everything is sweat-shopped out now. And even more recently, fibers are diluted. Stretch, performance, whatever they call it, have infiltrated virtually all garments at a breathtaking speed.
So I ran an experiment to test a hypothesis: “I can buy decent-enough khakis from a popular, mid-market clothing vendor at a reasonable price and work effort.” (Mathematicians and scientists may recognize my approach as Proof by Contradiction. Our H₁.)
Here’s how it went:
Background:
A classic summer uniform is khakis, oxfords, boat shoes, and canvas totes. (I am calling khakis what many people now call chinos.) Currently, khakis are the most difficult of this quadrumvirate to source, especially for women.
What goes into a great pair of khakis is fairly straightforward:
