British Wool Dress Pants, Brown-Green, Surplus

I say, chaps, what a dashing pair of wool trousers from His Majesty's Armed Forces. Your wardrobe probably has a trouser-sized hole in this jolly brownish green color segment. But worry not, now you can get some. Also perfect for that ol' time working class look with a suitable shirt. God save the King’s clothing supplier.

Features

These pants are part of the British temperate climate dress uniform, officially known as "Uniform, Man’s No. 2 Dress Army". In their great wisdom, the British uniform fetishists numbered the army uniforms so that nobody needs to spend time describing them with tiresome words. There are fourteen different numbers but some are no longer in use and some have been replaced by the PCS-CU (Personal Clothing System Combat Uniform).

The predecessor of this uniform was the "Service Dress uniform" that was taken into use in 1902. Before that, the British uniform was bright red, but it became very unpopular thanks to smokeless powder and faster guns. Thus, the army wanted something that doesn’t stand out as much.

The official color definition is khaki because in Britain olive drab can also be called as such. In plain language, it is brownish green, a spiffy old-time color that you unfortunately don’t see that often nowadays.

The pants have two front pockets, two buttoned back pockets, and a zippered fly. They don’t have belt loops, but they do have a tightening system at the waist. Furthermore, they feature buttons for suspenders (or braces as they would call them) that you should really use, because they will do the pants justice. The pant legs have a nice sharp crease.

This batch has pants from several eras/manufacturers but apart from the markings inside they look the same. Some have the text "1980 pattern", and some the manufacturer "Briggs Jones & Gibson Limited", which is no longer in operation.

These are made from some sort of a wool fabric that most likely is a blend of wool and something synthetic to make the pants stronger. However, we don’t have any info on what and how much. The fabric is semi-coarse, a bit like the cuss words darn, fudge, and shnookerdookies. People accustomed to modern softie pants will probably think they are coarse and people that regularly use wool frieze consider them soft. Dry cleaning is the only recommended cleansing ritual. So, no dhobi engine for these.

Sizing

The pants display the user’s height and chest circumference plus the waist circumference of the pants in centimeters. The chest is there because these are normally part of a uniform. However, since these pants are sold separately, we simplified the system and left out the chest measurement.

Condition

Used British military surplus, but these haven’t seen much parade marching. In other words, they are in excellent condition.