Getting Back to Gabardine
We’re not just literally getting back to gabardine by featuring it in our selection for the second year in a row - we’re also getting back to it in a broader sense, reviving a fabric that was once widely popular but has since been somewhat forgotten.
As menswear fans, we are all used to wearing fabrics that are no longer considered “popular” in the fashion world - tweeds and flannels, for example - but even within our small niche, some cloths have fallen into obscurity. At one point, they started being perceived as less fun, old-fashioned, or simply uncool. This, unfortunately, happened to gabardine - a tightly woven twill with military and technical connotations that had its big moment as a very popular suiting and trousers fabric in the mid-20th century, before falling out of favor.
Once invented as weather cloth, this type of wool quickly proved more useful as a durable, matte workhorse fabric. However, its career has been ended by the changing fashion - you could say it lost out to shiny and delicate superfine worsteds, machine-washable chino cottons, and the ever-so-versatile denim. The former became the seemingly nobler choice for business and formal attire, while the latter dominated casual, everyday dressing. With tailoring losing its once-unquestioned status as standard daily wear for men, more casual woolen fabrics - by 1950s standards, at least! - became less common. In the following decades whole category lost its point and practically disappeared from mainstream, as it was deemed too informal for “proper” suits yet too refined for casual wear that was on the rise.
While flannels and tropicals held their ground as strictly seasonal choices with unmatched alternative - working beautifully with textured, equally seasonal jackets - gabardine lacked a distinct feature to secure its place in the #menswear first league. Ironically, the very fact that it was once an ordinary, versatile all-rounder might be why it fell out of favor and struggled to make a comeback for so long. What a pity, we must say!
Luckily, now seems like the right time to appreciate its qualities again - we’re on the right track to prioritizing practicality without replacing tailored trousers entirely with chinos and jeans; we now need fabrics that don’t feel too formal but offer wool’s practicality. At Poszetka, we’ve never been huge fans of ultra-light, shiny, and smooth high-count fabrics; you probably associate us more with textured materials which we gravitate towards every season, alternating between winter- and summer-appropriate choices. However, for a long time, we felt limited to either cold- or hot-season choices, with nothing truly in-between. We struggled to find a middle ground… until we settled on this.
The gabardine we’ve chosen is a true mid-weight, tightly woven cloth that, while initially selected with the transitional season in mind, is a genuinely year-round option. Well, as year-round as it gets in our temperate climate -practically wearable every month except for the coldest winter days (and these are getting rare) and the unbearably hot summer ones (during which, to be honest, no fabric feels truly comfortable).
We’ve touched on gabardine’s cultural and fashion significance, but we haven’t yet gotten technical - despite already emphasizing its tight weave twice. We couldn’t not mention it; it’s a crucial feature. But what does it mean from a practical standpoint?
Most importantly, it means that garments made from gabardine hold their shape well - the crease on the trousers stays sharp and the fabric resists wrinkling. In this particular case, the effect is enhanced by the finish applied by Takisada Nagoya, one of the Japan’s few wool-specialized mills. Their so-called vintage finish gives the fabric a dry hand and a pleasantly springy feel by washing off excess natural oils without applying any coatings that create a smooth or shiny surface. This finish works beautifully with both vintage-feeling piece-dyed colors - like the two pastel shades we introduced last year - and more modern, mélange yarn tones, such as the classic gray and brown we opted for this time.
These trousers are meant to be worn - and worn hard. Just as people in the past saw gabardine as an everyday staple, we believe these are daily trousers. Daily, because they are easy to care for and impressively durable. Daily, because they pair effortlessly with almost anything a menswear enthusiast would want to wear. A blazer? Absolutely. An overshirt? Why not? A simple shirt and knitwear combo? Definitely. These are the unpretentious trousers for the job. And for actual work, too - especially if you happen to be in a somewhat conservative but not suit-only workplace.
So, when it’s too warm for flannels and too cold for tropicals - and, by the way, now just feels like the perfect time - give gabardine a chance. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself getting back to it again and again… just as we do.