Nantucket/Breton Reds: Casual Classics or Douche-y?

Nantucket/Breton Reds

  • Casual, Summertime Classics

    Votes: 10 83.3%
  • Only For Douche-y Preppy Wannabes

    Votes: 2 16.7%

  • Total voters
    12

Jan Libourel

Well-Known Member
Messages
866
Last week in the WDYBT thread I mentioned having purchased a pair of Bill's Khakis on sale in what they call "Antique Red." Very satisfactory pants, as you'd expect anything from Bill's to be (and they damn well better be at the prices). I tend to regard pants in this color as summertime casual classics, with "trad," preppy and nautical associations.

However, I am aware they are a bit GTH and that some people regard them as, well, "douche-y." I figured the members of this rowdy, pull-no-punches forum would give their unsparing, straightforward feelings about this without ersatz "gentlemanly" constraints, so please let me know what you think.
 
Depends how you wear them.

I have three pair of red/pink chinos.
 
I believe they are not Douchey given their Ivy/trad provenance as well as being loved to death by the Dutch

But, like anything, worn by a Douche they become Douchey
 
Like bow ties, ascots, plaid pants etc... they are great on people that are comfortable and know how to wear them properly. If there is any doubt, they are not for you. It will look affected and costumey. Wannabes tend to get the color all wrong, and pair them with all kinds of dandy crap. Don't wear them with a madras coat, a pink shirt, or colored boat shoes!
I have pinky-brick cords and a pair of shorts, both from early1990s LL Bean. I've been a preppy wannabe before the douches were doing it, so I feel grandfathered in.
 
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I've got a few pairs of red, cotton trousers - two in a faded, Nantucket red colour, one in bright, fire-engine red, and one in a darker, more brick-red colour (moving towards maroon on the colour spectrum).

I wear them quite a bit during summer, usually with a blue OCBD shirt or sometimes with a navy shirt.

I like to think that I'm not a douche, although some might disagree!
 
Nantucket red is quintessential ivy/prep, Shoes and shirt should be simple when wearing bold colors. No need to look like a clown.
 
dont wear them if you look like a (formerly) poor person
or if you parents were/ are poor
 
Typical commie statement. Red is the people's color.

colourless is te peoples colour

why giv ethe people a y rights???

be tougH and break them
break them
break them
and theirnchikdreb
and their children
 
colourless is te peoples colour
Wrong. Point in case

flag.GIF


Ok I am done with this shenanigans
 
Last week in the WDYBT thread I mentioned having purchased a pair of Bill's Khakis on sale in what they call "Antique Red." Very satisfactory pants, as you'd expect anything from Bill's to be (and they damn well better be at the prices). I tend to regard pants in this color as summertime casual classics, with "trad," preppy and nautical associations.

However, I am aware they are a bit GTH and that some people regard them as, well, "douche-y." I figured the members of this rowdy, pull-no-punches forum would give their unsparing, straightforward feelings about this without ersatz "gentlemanly" constraints, so please let me know what you think.


I've wanted red pants for years and years and years but l could never find them anywhere. However this week l got my first pair of red cords and fulfilled a dream. I wanted red cords sooo much that l came close to bespeaking a pair a few times.

I really like the colour red, + it suits me.
 
Jan Libourel Jan Libourel , please help explain the defining characteristic of Nantucket/Breton reds as opposed to any red trousers. The silly Preppy Handbook say something like the real ones are sold by a tiny shop on an island that is only open a few hours on weekadays for three months a year. I'm not that stringent, but the shade is like denim or chinos in that if the color is a bit off, it's way off and all wrong. It's not scarlet,it's not burgundy, it's not really pink. Kind of adusty rose? The fashionistas tend to get crap that is too salmon or bubble gum.
I thought this authority would get it right but I'm not so sure.
Salt Water New England: Reds; Nantucket Reds From Murray's Toggery; What to Wear With Nantucket Reds; and Alternatives
OLD BEAN TROPIC WEIGHT.webp
 
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Not being anywhere near nantucket, and not even knowing all that much about except that it seems like an exceptionally good start for a smutty limerick with its last syllables. There was a young man from nantucket....

Anyway I always understood the best started off as a kind of deep dusty rich rose pink but due to washing and salty sea from hours on decks of yachts acquired a patina or fades like good denim and was/is worn like jeans.

I haven't looked yet but I'm sure there's a description somewhere, perhaps on Jarrods blog, or the dreadful Chens . I think Muffy has gone off in a huff over a kerfuffle about an invented noble past or something. Surprising as I thought that reinventing a past was a grand and respected America trait. Anyway I'm sure muffy would have an article. Maybe a trawl (not troll*) of the TI archives might pull up something.

*small TI in joke for Cognoscenti.
 
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Jan Libourel Jan Libourel , please help explain the defining characteristic of Nantucket/Breton reds as opposed to any red trousers. The silly Preppy Handbook say something like the real ones are sold by a tiny shop on an island that is only open a few hours on weekadays for three months a year. I'm not that stringent, but the shade is like denim or chinos in that if the color is a bit off, it's way off and all wrong. It's not scarlet,it's not burgundy, it's not really pink. Kind of adusty rose? The fashionistas tend to get crap that is too salmon or bubble gum.
I thought this authority would get it right but I'm not so sure.
Salt Water New England: Reds; Nantucket Reds From Murray's Toggery; What to Wear With Nantucket Reds; and Alternatives.

Oh, I don't know if I am good at describing colors, but I would describe it as a reddish pink or pinkish red. Various firms have different names for essentially the same product. Murray's Toggery copyrighted the term "Nantucket Reds." A competitor uses the term "Breton Reds." Lands' End calls them "Picante Reds," and Bill's Khakis, which I just purchased, uses "Antique Reds." They all seem pretty similar.

My father-in-law liked to rock "British Reds," which are a much brighter red with an orange-y cast, like the British military uniforms of the 18th and much of the 19th centuries. This is why during the American Revolution the Rebels called British regulars "lobsterbacks."

A friend of my stepson was just admiring mine. However, he said he couldn't wear them, they just wouldn't suit him. I could understand why. He is a very swarthy Salvadoran immigrant who looks as if he should be climbing over the gunwale of a ship with knife between his teeth--not at all the WASP preppy type. Notwithstanding his feral appearance, he is a very nice guy, well mannered and surprisingly knowledgeable.
 
My father-in-law liked to rock "British Reds," which are a much brighter red with an orange-y cast, like the British military uniforms of the 18th and much of the 19th centuries. This is why during the American Revolution the Rebels called British regulars "lobsterbacks."

That reminds me of a story about the 11th Hussars, an English cavalry regiment, that I learned from reading the Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser.

The 11th Hussars were called "The Cherry Pickers" and, from 1840 onwards, they wore bright crimson trousers. Significantly, they were unique amongst British regiments at that time in having crimson trousers.

However, the nickname for the regiment came not from the colour of their trousers, but from an occasion when they were stealing fruit from a cherry orchard in Spain and came under attack by Napoleonic forces during the Peninsular War!

The 11th and 10th Hussars were combined together at some stage during the 20th century, to become the King's Royal Hussars. Their dress uniform still includes crimson trousers to this day.
 
^I think they were also called the "Cherry Bums" because of their short jackets and tight trousers. Of course, at the time of the Peninsular War (and when Harry Flashman joined the regiment), they were still the 11th Light Dragoons.
 
My father-in-law liked to rock "British Reds," which are a much brighter red with an orange-y cast, like the British military uniforms of the 18th and much of the 19th centuries. This is why during the American Revolution the Rebels called British regulars "lobsterbacks."

I actually favor these over Nantuckets myself.
 
I saw about a half dozen men, one at a time, in Manhattan yesterday wearing pinky red pentz. I think every one of them was swift enough to be pairing them with a pale blue button-down.
 

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