According to the most fictional story, the creation of the khaki pants was the work of British officer Harry Lumsden. Destined in India in the late 19th century, he replaced heavy army pants, intended for very different places, with lighter ones to beat the heat and asked they to be dyed with tea leaves to help camouflage in the new environment.
According to another version, it was the British soldiers themselves who stained their white uniforms with mud and curry to better adapt to the British imperial colonies' terrain. In fact, the word "khaki" refers to the earth color although it ended up being associated with a type of pants with four pockets, relaxed cut, and usually without pliers. And they don't have to be khaki color. According to Mark McNairy, a designer with an interesting love-hate relationship with this garment, the khakis were the germ of the chino pants, somewhat lighter and with a cut that narrows from the knee although they are usually included in the same group.
The British Army ended up adapting the garment for campaigns in India, South Africa, or Sudan and later the United States began using it as a uniform due to its functional advantages in hot climates. The pilots image made the khakis pants a symbol of adventure; Charles Lindberg, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Steve McQueen, or Indiana Jones found that khakis allowed greater movement freedom. On the opposite side, the Ivy League took the Khakis' military past as an honor and made them one more element of the preppy uniform.
Each decade has reinvented its use, as a must-have for casual Fridays in the 90s, in technology companies in the early 2000s or even converted into a skatewear. As a classic American garment, the casual elegance of khakis and chinos has been key for Ralph Lauren but also for the reinterpretations of Comme des Garçons or Fumito Ganryu who have managed to take a basic to a new scale.
Unlike other classic garments that eternally keep the same meaning, the khakis pants eternally keep lines that await their perfect moment.
