The Man From Maine

I live in a place that experiences an honest-to-God, snow and ice winter every year. On of the best garments I've ever owned to combat the attendant cold temperatures of January was a pair of flannel lined khakis from L.L.Bean. My old pair was a little to big for me, but they were so warm I wore them anyway. For shoveling or sledding with the wee ones, they can't be beat. Alas, I recently spilled a big whiff of olive oil on them, and the stain has proved impossible to remove.

These pants had been such a good thing to own, I was fully prepared to pay full retail for a new pair. I may be a self avowed cheapskate, but I think $50 is more than a fair price for nice looking warm pants. Then, just in the nick of time, what should find me but these:

A vintage pair, in my size, $4.89

The flannel is a nice shade of dusty orange, and at least twice as thick as the flannel in my first pair.

Serious vintage L.L. Bean. How long has it been since they switched from this old script logo? Maybe Heavy Tweed Jacket can come out of the woodwork and give us a short history lesson on these.

Best of all, they have a really trim cut, short in the legs with no break. The cut, plus the logo, plus the weight and quality of the cotton leads me to date these pants in the 60's or 70's.

They have a kind of funny, asymmetrical placement to the belt loops. Kind of reminds of the old the cut of the old thread-bare Dickie's my grandfather was so fond of. Note how well they go with the vintage buffalo plaid wool Chippewa pop-over I purchased a while back.

Red wool socks and Bean gum shoes are, of course, de riguer. Too bad I didn't have some lumber to split or something.

p.s. I know I've been known to rail against the current trend in work wear as fashion, and this outfit flies in the face of that. It's not the clothes I have a problem with, it's the millionaire price tags...the clothes are actually pretty cool, on occasion.