Do cargo pants come with too much baggage? - Financial Times

In the 1990s, women groups such as All Saints and TLC popularised utilitarian-looking combat trousers © Ken McKay/Shutterstock

I don't know about you, but I came of age wearing combat trousers. I was 12 in 1994, when TLC released CrazySexyCool, and 15 in 1997, during All Saints' pomp, when pop culture was saturated with images of women in giant utilitarian-looking slacks. I wore mine very long, over flatforms, from my teens until I graduated from university in the early noughties. I can still feel the tug of their fraying hems, which continually required disentanglement from some object on the floor, and the swish of fabric that made my body issues moot. It's safe to say they were a formative garment.

So how to feel about their return, more than 20 years later? Because, in a surprise post-lockdown fashion twist, combats — or, as their most recognisable, pocket-covered iterations are now more commonly known, cargo or utility trousers — are having a resurgence.

Young, hip types have been into them for some time: Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner are fans, as are Danish influencers Pernille Teisbaek and Emili Sindlev, while in menswear, Lewis Hamilton, Marc Jacobs and Bradley Cooper are repeat wearers. For many early adopters, combats are part of the "Y2K" trend, which revives pre-smartphone era fashion for a Gen Z audience. Y2K is a big deal on Depop, which reports a 70 per cent increase in searches for combats and cargo trousers since mid-June.

Recent men's and women's collections suggest they are about to take off for the rest of us. Bottega Veneta has £940 versions with straps criss-crossing over zip-up thigh pockets; Miu Miu showed cream, slate and butterscotch iterations for autumn/winter 21. For spring 2022 Collina Strada showed loose, satsuma-coloured versions, while Tom Ford's were silky, azure, parakeet and black, and cuffed at the ankle. There were pistachio and ruched leather pairs at Fendi men's and at Balmain men's respectively.

They were also recently endorsed by James Bond, in No Time to Die (you can buy the same three-pocket grey combats from N. Peal, for £245, should you fancy them). Little wonder that, according to global fashion shopping platform Lyst, online searches for cargo and combat trousers have increased 67 per cent since August.

Silky combat trousers cuffed at the ankles from Tom Ford's spring/summer 2022 catwalk

Not everyone will delight in their return, however, because cargo trousers carry a lot of baggage. Twenty years ago they were so omnipresent, worn by cheesy TV talent show pop groups and sold by the truckload at Gap, that when the zeitgeist shifted they became an emblem of bad noughties style. Cargo trousers — and their abbreviated cousins, cargo shorts — were skewered in movies such as Superbad (2007) and a 2014 episode of sitcom New Girl.

Much of the comedy centred on the pockets, which could look bulky if wearers used them, but seemed unnecessary — even inauthentic — if not. "It's that idea of redundant functionality," says Andrew Groves, professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster. "Why have you got all of those pockets if you don't need them? Why are you wearing the dress of someone you're not?" It's a bit Walter Mitty, he points out.

Combat trousers were initially designed for the battlefield, after all, introduced by the British army in 1938, after which US paratroopers adopted them and made the pockets bigger to store maps, compasses, hand grenades and ammunition. I won't be alone in finding the idea of consciously imitating military dress a bit tasteless, even though many other everyday items — peacoats, trench coats and balaclavas, to name but a few — have similar origins. For some workwear enthusiasts, the design's military history — and its connotations of tough, highly researched, precision-engineered style — is clearly part of the appeal. The internet is awash with garments for sale with names such as Vietnam war OG-107 Fatigue Utility Pants.

Maharishi founder Hardy Blechman, whose Snopants became a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s, worn by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston as well as Victoria Beckham and Robin Williams, takes these connotations seriously. A scholar of military clothing, he tells me that, for example, the straps on the brand's cargo pants were originally conceived to keep heavy bullets strapped close to the body. But, rather than glorifying war, his strapline is "Pacifist military design since 1994".

"While I oppose war, I am really into clothing that would suit war — that has the same level of functionality and powerful construction — for urban purposes," he says. He also points out that Snopants, specifically, are arguably not combat trousers ("we still debate this in the studio"), or at least not cargo pants because they don't have patch pockets on the thighs. Rather, they are "distantly related" to shell pants worn over the US army's combat uniform as snow camouflage.

Pockets or not, it is precisely the Maharishi 1990s silhouette that has fashion in its grip, gradually threatening to out the skinny jeans look that has dominated much of the past decade. On a practical note, Holly Tenser, buying manager of ready-to-wear at Browns Fashion, says combats are the perfect gateway trouser for a hybrid working life post-jogging bottoms. "The cargo bridges comfort and formal wear because it has strong practicality and is comfortable and functional," she says.

Maharishi Snopants were a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s, worn by the likes of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston © GC Images

They also bring a pleasing nostalgia, particularly for women like me. In the 1990s and 2000s, says Tenser, "there was a boyish charm to the trend that, by extension, really spoke to female empowerment and felt like a strong shift into more unisex fashion". At the time, pop music and R&B were "male-dominated genres and these incredible female artists started to take charge and quite literally wear the trousers".

On women's catwalks — and on Bella Hadid's Instagram page — combats tend to be paired with bra tops and rock-hard abs but, says Tenser, "they offer such a flattering shape that, with a more covered-up top, like a Marine Serre moon top, they create a nice shape that flatters all". There are also plenty of versions that would look highly sophisticated with, say, a close-fitting navy blue cashmere jumper, at brands including Jil Sander, Prada, Ganni and Levi's, and all over resale sites such as Depop and Vestiaire Collective. This is true in menswear too, where the 007 and Bradley Cooper-approved template — a streamlined pair worn with a slim-fitting sweatshirt or simple zip-up jacket — looks sleek.

Personally, I see them as a viable jeans alternative to wear with white trainers — maybe platform Converse Chuck Taylors for a subtle bit of height — not least because, as Hardy points out, the pockets are finally truly useful in an age of smartphones. "That's cargo we didn't have 20 years ago," he says. And let's not forget face masks. How nice to house that new, unwelcome accessory within a garment that brings happy memories.

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