Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: travel trousers – the gateway drug to smart comfy dressing

The Guardian

6 days ago

Forget smart casual. These days it's smart comfy that I want. Smart casual was about making smart clothes look more relaxed; smart comfy is about making them feel more relaxed.
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Smart comfy might not sound all that different to smart casual, but it is nothing short of a whole new perspective on getting dressed. Smart casual was about how to look smart, without looking stuffy. It was about how you looked to other people, more than how you felt in yourself. The goal was to appear chill, not to feel chill.
Smart comfy starts from the opposite direction. It is about clothes that look polished, but don't have any hard edges. The gateway drug that got me hooked, and that I can see on the street is doing the same for others, is a pair of travel trousers. If you don't get the point of smart comfy yet, then I suspect you will when you get your first pair.
Do you have them already? Travel trousers present as semi-formal trousers. They have the silhouette and detailing of trousers you might wear to the office with a shirt. The waistband doesn't look elasticated (although it might be, more of which later) but instead has a button fastening, or belt loops, or both. They are not tight like leggings, but neither are they just shapeless, like tracksuit trousers. They drape. The fabric, too, is important. Not the traditional smart kind that demands you stay pert and upright to avoid the creases and bags that come with sitting down, but also nothing fluffy or fleecy or pyjama-adjacent. The new generation of technical fabrics can pass for silk or wool blend, but have the zero-crease factor of Lycra.
The travel trouser is a wardrobe category that didn't exist a year or two ago. It is happening right now, and soon it will be everywhere. It has legs, because it does what successful products in all categories do. It solves a real-life problem. That real-life problem being: sometimes we spend hours sitting down – on a plane or a train, or at a desk, on the sofa – and then need to be presentable enough to be public-facing, whether that's presenting to a board or doing school pick-up. In travel trousers you can sit down, even nap, without your clothes digging in or getting too hot or otherwise getting on your nerves, and then you can stand up and not look like a crumpled slob.
I bought my Lululemon Daydrift High-Rise trousers (pictured) on a recommendation, because I was looking for trousers comfortable enough to wear on a long journey but nice enough to wear to work straight off the train or plane. They do that job perfectly, but it turns out I wear them all the time. They are blissfully comfortable. The waistband has concealed elastic inside which has a drawstring to adjust the size, so they stretch with you, and you don't need to wear a belt unless you want to. You can throw them in the washing machine, they dry super fast and don't need ironing. They aren't cheap – £118 at full price – but they genuinely pass as dressy, which makes them feel worth it.
Lululemon are best known for making leggings you see in the fancier kind of yoga class. Athleisure brands are leading the market on the travel trouser, which makes sense: like I said, smart comfy is about feel first and foremost. Lots of people recommend Vuori's Villa trousers (£130), which are similar to Lululemon's Daydrift, although if I'm being picky I would point out that the elastic isn't hidden on the rear view of the Villa, so you need a belt or untucked top to make them look polished. For a less expensive option, good old Uniqlo now appear to be getting in on the act, with a new style of Smart Wide Trousers (£34.90) available from the end of June.
Trousers that are comfortable enough to curl up in, but smart enough to pass when you need to look snappy. That feel like athleisure, but present as tailoring. It's like a cheat code to life! The era of smart comfy has arrived.
Main image Model: Jen at Milk Management. Hair and makeup: Delilah Blakeney using Olaplex and MAC. Jacket, £109.99 and top, £35.99, both Mango. Trousers, £118, Lululemon. Earrings, £39, Ottoman Hands. Sandals, £149, AllSaints. Suitcase, £395, Carl Frederick