How Long Your Pants Should Be!

A tailored guide to the most contested two inches in menswear.

- David Coggins

The correct length of a pair of pants, like a well-made martini, is a question of proportion. And like martinis, there are strong feelings about the right way to blend taste, trend, and tradition.

Historically, a wider trouser has been worn long enough to rest on the top of the shoe, which creates a break in the fabric in front of the shin. For years there was an uneasy détente between those who wanted this kind of “good break” and those who preferred “no break,” a cut that favors narrower trousers and runs parallel to the ground instead of falling over the top of your shoe. (Let’s not even get into the kind of break that gathers into an unruly pool of fabric around the ankles, evidence of a man struggling to keep pace with the world.)

I heard the phrase “a good break” before I knew what it meant. My father took me to the Polo store in Minneapolis when I was a boy and would tell Paul, our longtime sartorial consigliere there, that my trousers should have a good break. He said this with such confidence that I never questioned the validity of that declaration—and in any case, my preference wasn’t asked.

Eventually, I grew to prefer clothes that fit in a more concise way. I started gravitating to trimmer trousers with little break and, finally, to ones with no break at all—the hem was right at the top of the shoe.