Cropped Or Rolled - Which Is Best?

[William Colman]

I've been thinking, a very dangerous occupation indeed, about the cut of my trousers. This is a question that has plagued me for a while now and I just can't come down on one side of the fence or the other. To crop? Or Roll?

I often find myself looking at pictures of rather dashing Italians and notice that they nearly always wear their trousers cropped rather than rolled, which, from what I can see, is the slightly more preppy way of doing things.

As my intention is to steer my style towards an Italian/Preppy mix, I would like to be able to make the most of both worlds, but before I started chopping the bottoms of my chinos I thought I might canvas some opinion.

I've already had the trousers of my Double Breasted suit cropped so that I can show off both my ankles (not that they are anything special) and my delicious Double Monk Straps and I can safely say that I'm pretty chuffed with the look it produces, but should I go all out and have the same done to my two pairs of stone chinos?

I get the feeling that it wouldn't work quite as well with coloured chinos so my duck egg blue ones are safe, but I definitely think it works well with more neutral colours.

What do we think?

[_Ben_]

I've been wondering this as well. I love the current collection at ACNE, and noticed that a lot of their jeans and trousers are cut as ankle-grazers (rather like the All Saints short-kicks) but fashioned to sit above the ankle without a roll. The clean lines are almost envious.
I've stopped wearing my short-kicks because of the slight drop crotch (can a tailor fix it?), however if I wear them high above my belly-button they look like the jeans ACNE are sporting this season.

The problem for me is that when it comes to jeans I think a roll looks sexy. I've worn my jeans for years with a roll or two, way before it really became a fashion staple, and I can't see myself stopping for a while.
With trousers/chinos, however, I think the cropped look is awesome.

There is one major drawback, though. If, or when, this style goes out of fashion, you will be left with a pair of trousers the fashion-world deems unfashionable. In ten years time we might scoff cropped trousers as being ridiculous: effectively they look as though you're wearing a pair of trousers too short for you.

Consequently, maybe you should try this with a pair of trousers in a less versatile colour? If this colour goes out of fashion, you may discontinue wearing the trousers, however if you were to crop a pair of extremely versatile trousers and the look went out of fashion, you may have ruined a pair of awesome trousers. At least a roll is reversible.

There's two other thing you can consider: having your trousers lined with a contrast colour, or taken up to produce a hem.

With the latter, look at the following picture. Notice that the trousers appear to be cut above the ankle, but could perhaps be let down to produce a standard leg length (which could then be rolled if you decided you prefer this look)


(courtesy of Mr Porter)

Or, regarding the lining idea, check out these beauties from Mr Porter (Jill Sander's):

The contrast lining, IMHO, adds an incredibly quirky touch to the trousers which I think is extremely Italian.

At the end of the day though, it really does boil down to personal preference. I think one or two cropped trousers, which fit perfectly, would be extremely enviable this summer.

[Nath6644]

I think you should stick to rolling with chinos personally. It depends on the formality of the trousers obviously, but if you're wearing chinos you're already making a smart-casual statement and rolling fits that aesthetic better in my view.

[William Colman]

mmmm, I was looking at the Mr Porter feature earlier whilst crafting my Early Modern Literature essay. I think I might crop one pair of my stone chinos, I've got to have some work done on them anyway so it might be worth doing all at once.

[_Ben_]

It's a brilliant article. I think it would be a great decision to have those trousers cropped; looking through the Reiss website, it's amazing how much it can refine the lines of an outfit, and it looks amazing as well.

[Jay]

I do both.

With jeans I roll. With chinos, it depends on how smart they are: courser, more denim-like ones I roll and lighter, smarter ones, I crop. Normal casual trousers are cropped to the ankle.

Anything properly formal, I use the classic standard half-break.

The only thing I worry about with my trousers that are cropped to the ankle, is that the look may date and I'm left with a pile of trousers I can no longer wear.

The Gucci photo above aren't cropped by the way. Those will at least have a half break once those guys stand up.

[_Ben_]

The Gucci photo above aren't cropped by the way. Those will at least have a half break once those guys stand up.

Completely right. I realised after I posted it that the trousers would fall lower, as you say, once he stood up. I was more interested in the small hem which has the potential to be let down to create a standard leg length, hopefully to ensure that if the ankle-grazer style goes out of fashion, the trousers can last.

[Jay]

The problem with letting a hem down is that the colour from the inside never matches or you get a fade at the point of the fold. Once you take the decision to take them up, there's no going back.

[William Colman]

I think I'll just have one pair cropped when I get the waist taken in.