The same basic style was used for uniform trousers during World War One, and returning soldiers from both wars brought them into civilian settings.
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Their trousers were made simple and tapered, without pleated fronts, to save on cloth costs, resulting in a smooth, simple style. When American soldiers serving in the Philippines during the Spanish-American war needed uniform trousers, they found it cheaper and quicker to import from China rather than the United States. The British and French military were both using chino to make their khaki uniform trousers by the latter half of the 19th century. Much of the confusion between khakis and chinos can be traced to the origin of the latter style: “chinos” were khakis, of a sort.Ĭhino cloth was a lightweight twill weave from China (hence the name). The colonial military stationed in India adopted khakis as their uniform trouser by 1848, and it spread through the rest of the British Empire until the entire British army formally adopted the style as their uniform in 1884. He dyed them with a native plant called mazari, which produced a dusty tan color that the locals called “khaki.” The first khaki trousers were made in 1846 when a British officer serving in the Punjab region traded his company's hot wool trousers and jackets for lighter cloth and looser cuts made from native cotton. Of the two terms, “khakis” is older by the better part of a century. Khakis will look more blocky chinos more streamlined. You'll have to look at specific types of pants, see what their materials and details look like for yourself.īut in general – khakis, sturdy and utilitarian. There's no real guarantee that chinos from Brand A are going to be lighter and dressier than khakis from Brand B. So if you took chino cloth and dyed it khaki, you would in fact have “khaki chinos.” Confusing, no?) “Chino,” on the other hand, was a specific weave of lightweight cotton twill. The original meaning of “khaki” is a specific color, from the Urdu word for “dust,” unrelated to any specific style of trouser. (Technically, that could even be correct. It's entirely possible to find something being sold as “khaki chinos.” Manufacturers have been labeling any old cotton dress trousers as either one of these words, or sometimes as both, for years. Now, are you going to find exceptions to these rules? Of course you are. Of the two, khakis are more toward the sturdy work-wear end of things, while chinos are lighter and a bit dressier. Both styles are made from cotton twill, and are traditionally dyed somewhere in between a very pale cream color and a dark tan.Chinos are lightweight, tapered so that they narrow as they go lower on the leg, and can be either cuffed or uncuffed.Khakis are thick, straight-legged, and typically pleated (although plain fronts are available from most brands these days).Manufacturers and advertisers have strayed from these boundaries enough that you'll have to take this with a big old grain of salt, but broadly speaking here are the differences: So here's your definitive answer, insofar as there is one. And while that's interesting, it doesn't actually help someone who's shopping for dress-casual trousers very much.
![what is the difference between beige and khaki what is the difference between beige and khaki](https://icolorpalette.com/download/palette/452567_color_palette.jpg)
Unfortunately, most places try to answer the question by diving into the history of the two words. Here's a question you'll see on every menswear forum out there - just what's the difference between khakis and chinos? (function(w,d,t,r,u))(window,document,"script","///bat.What's the Difference Between Chinos vs. Var f = d.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT'), p = d.createElement('SCRIPT') }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')) })(window, document, 'script', 'dataLayer', 'GTM-NZN9Z2') Var f = d.getElementsByTagName(s), j = d.createElement(s), dl = l != 'dataLayer' ? '&l=' + l : ''