Plate No. 050 · fabric

Chino

Chino is a smooth, densely woven cotton twill, the cloth of the khaki military trouser. The fabric tradition begins with British forces in 1840s India dyeing their white drill the dust color called khaki, and the name chino was attached half a century later by American soldiers in the Philippines wearing trousers of Chinese-milled cotton twill. Demobilized soldiers carried the trousers home through both world wars, and campus dress turned a uniform item into the default casual trouser of the twentieth century.