Why wealthy men love these $1,600 pants that feel ‘like pyjamas’

Comfy yet sufficiently dressy in wool, these five-pocket pants have affluent men reaching for their Black Cards.

Wealthy men love these $1,600 pants.

You hear plenty about the cashmere caps, slip-on sneakers and limited-edition dive watches beloved by deep-pocketed men. Fancy pants? Not so much. Victoria Hitchcock, a personal stylist to tech execs in Silicon Valley, calls trousers the “worker bees” of men’s wardrobes, reliable yet rarely buzzed about.

In recent years, however, moneyed men are pouncing on a certain breed of pants, and one US$1000 cashmere specimen in particular, as if it’s a portal to a new tax haven, according to stylists and stores serving the 1 per cent. These new status pants – basic five-pocket designs, but rendered in luxe wool flannels – are pyjama-comfy yet polished enough for hosting client luncheons, clinking Negronis at members’ clubs or deploying seasons as verbs.

Five-pocket pants, typically a tidy style that hangs on the hips, with a front coin slot, famously come in denim and other casual cottons. While these elite, fresh takes retain that familiar cut, the wool ups the formality, says Alex Gushner, men’s buyer at luxury Philadelphia retailer Boyds.

“After Covid,” says Will Arvanites, a buyer at Marc Allen Fine Clothiers, a men’s store in Providence, Rhode Island, “these are as dressy as most guys need to get in an office.”

Italian brands Zegna and PT Torino offer popular takes, but insiders hail a design by a little-known Neapolitan label – Marco Pescarolo’s pants in Magnifico cashmere – as the platinum standard. Introduced in 2019, they’re distinguished by their cloth, a soft and light-but-not-flimsy blend of 96 per cent Mongolian cashmere and 4 per cent elastane. That’s an unusually high cashmere percentage for pants. Think of them as Levi’s 501s that swapped ranch life for the royal court. Their princely price: $US995 ($1587) to $US1095, depending on the retailer.

George Mayer wearing his cashmere Pescarolo pants and Zegna Triple Stitch sneakers. Picture: Paige Thatcher for The 1916 Company

Slim as a caviar spoon’s handle, the tapered pants come in (yes) 45-plus shades, most of them subdued such as charcoal and chocolate. They play nice with sport coats, and demand dry-cleaning. A key chain of a traditional Neapolitan theatre mask – the brand’s logo – dangles dramatically from their belt loop (most men remove it). Call them “Magnifico!”; don’t you dare utter “worker bee”.

Bart Trigg, senior men’s buyer and manager at historic luxury Dallas retailer Stanley Korshak, called the pants “a phenomenon” and “a magic item”. Not only are they currently his store’s best-selling pants “by far”, he reckons they might be its best-selling pants ever. Stanley Korshak has upped its orders by at least 20 per cent annually for the past few years, he added.

For pants at such a high price, they’re “unusually popular”, says Gushner. Bob Mitchell, co-CEO of Mitchell Stores, which owns luxury retailers across the US, described them as “a treat” for affluent guys. For many high-flyers, one measly treat is not enough: Arvanites finds lots of customers initially bristle at the price, but after pulling on a pair, “are like, ‘Holy shit, that feels amazing. What other colours does it come in?’ ”.

The wintry pants have put Pescarolo on the map in the US, says Gushner. The family-owned brand, a pant specialist that in recent years diversified into other garments, was founded in 1999 by husband and wife Marco Pescarolo and Anna De Matteis. (De Matteis’s brother, Antonio, is CEO of uber-pricey brand Kiton.)

Today its annual revenue totals about $US20m. It has grown by about 35 per cent in each of the past four years, says marketing manager Benedetta Pescarolo, the founders’ daughter. The customers, most of whom are 35-65, can swipe their Amexes at about 300 third-party stores globally.

Benedetta says De Matteis spent more than a year developing Magnifico with an Italian mill. “We did a lot of tests” to pinpoint a cashmere-elastane composition that wouldn’t pill or stretch out, she says, before settling on “the perfect” mix. (The brand cuts Magnifico into other styles; Europeans favour a drawstring version.)

Unlike the fashionably wide trousers dominating runways, these pants’ lean lines appeal to regular men who do regular things like law or medicine or buying and selling islands. Mario Esposito, who co-manages Pescarolo’s European and US markets, says “a lot of CEOs” wear them, as do members of European royal families. “They want a nice, clean fit – to look young and good.”

Dr. Foluso Fakorede in his cashmere Pescarolo pants. Photo: Dr. Foluso Fakorede

Stylist Hitchcock says the trim cut can constrict men with bigger legs. But Arvanites finds the stretch cloth forgiving, especially on post-lunch paunches.

What fans really want to discuss is how these pants feel. “They’re so comfortable I could go running in them,” says George Mayer, 39, who bought two pairs just over a year ago. Global director of sales at luxury watch retailer the 1916 Company, Mayer has worn them “tens of times” and said they still look new. “They did strike me as expensive when I bought them, but I think they’re worth (the price).”

In his Philadelphia office, he pairs them with Zegna Triple Stitch sneakers, the slip-ons that have conquered C-suites. In that cosy yet rarefied combo, “I feel like I’m wearing slippers and pyjamas, but I’m business casual”.

Michael Calore, 39, also likes his Magnificos very much. “I wear the shit out of them,” says the Boston-based partner at a biotech investment firm. More than a year in, he says his show no signs of wear.

The Wall Street Journal