Trousers sized by the tape, not by the label

FULL BLUE makes trousers for people who put them on before it gets light. The range is narrow on purpose: carpenter jeans and pants, cargo trousers and cargo shorts, five pocket denim, plain twill and canvas, and the lined pairs that come out when the ground freezes. Nothing here is a season. The same cuts come back every year in the same washes, and the numbers on the label are the part that matters.

Those numbers decide the layout of this catalogue. You buy a pair of work trousers by the waist and the inseam. Everything else is a preference. So the waist and the inseam sit on the front of every card, ahead of the colour and the price. You can also walk the whole range by waist alone: the bands go from the standard rack up to the sizes most shops will order in but not stock.

The top of that scale is what people know the FULL BLUE lineup for. The carpenter jean and the cargo short both carry on past fifty inches in the waist, and the pages for those sizes look exactly like the pages for a thirty four. There is no separate corner for them and no surcharge language. A man who takes a sixty buys the same trousers as the man who takes a thirty six, in the same wash, from the same page.

How we build them, we print in our own words. Reinforced seams and double stitching where the fabric takes the strain. A hammer loop and a flat rule pocket on the carpenter styles. Cotton, or cotton with a little spandex where the label says stretch.

The lined pairs carry flannel or fleece, and on the bonded ones we fuse the lining to the shell instead of sewing it in loose. Pre shrunk in most cases, so check the label of the pair you choose before the first hot wash.

Where a pair was made is printed on the label in its waistband, and that label travels with the pair for as long as you wear it.

We update prices on a schedule. One date covers the whole catalogue and the prices page carries it. A pair with no buyable offer leaves the range until it returns, so every price you see is one you can pay.

The guides are the other half of FULL BLUE. One is about measuring, because a tape around the waistband of trousers that already fit beats a tape around a stomach every time. One is about what the carpenter, cargo and five pocket cuts change when you are carrying tools. One is about the label, and what the law makes a maker tell you on it.

All three quote their sources word for word, with the date we read them, and all three stand on numbers we counted in this catalogue rather than borrowed.

The FULL BLUE range will not suit everyone. There is no hi vis here, nothing flame resistant, and nothing rated for an arc. If your site requires any of those, buy the trousers that carry the certificate and ignore this catalogue. And if you want a slim leg, look elsewhere as well: the cuts here are relaxed, regular and traditional, which is a polite way of saying there is room through the seat and thigh. That room is the point.