Though they have been bubbling under for a couple of seasons, this summer khaki trousers, more commonly known as chinos, are definitely H-O-T!
But the question is, ‘Could they be considered a British invention?’
Chinos, sometimes known 
as Khakis have been around for over 150 years, springing up in India in the 1840s when Sir Harry Lumsden, a British Army commander, traded in his bright white uniform trousers for lighter-weight pyjama bottoms to find some relief from the heat. To disguise them, he used a local plant (mazari) to dye them, turning them a dusty colour that blended with the local terrain. The Hindu word for ‘dust’ is ‘khaki’, and hence the name was born, and the style adopted by the Army.
The British Khakis quickly found their way to China, where they were quickly copied and sold to American troops in the Philippines in the Spanish American War. At the time Spanish was one of the primary languages spoken in the Philippines, the Spanish word for Chinese is ‘chino’ and the word was adopted to describe the fabric. Phewf! Did you get all that?
Trousers made of the material became known as ‘chinos’ and were popularised when American soldiers returned to the U.S. and continued to wear their khaki uniform trousers in civilian life, particularly at college, teamed with button down shirts and penny loafers, creating the preppy look so many of us want to sport these days.
OK, enough of the history lesson – the current styling of chinos is far removed from Sir Harry Lumsden’s jim-jams these days. We hit the streets to see how you are wearing yours – jean cuts, cuffed ankles, turn-ups, button over pockets all feature on this year’s styles.
And it’s not just the cut that’s moved on – another development is that khaki is no longer the only colour for the chino trouser. We’ve spotted them in navy, in grey and in brown.
So is it time to ditch your denim in favour of the chino? Well, we wouldn’t encourage anything as extreme as that, but chinos are quickly becoming an essential wardrobe addition and going by what we’ve witnessed, chinos are going to be really big for summer. In fact, we reckon they’re here to stay.
