Denim and tailoring have not always made the best dance partners. One cut its teeth on railroads in the American Midwest, built for dust, rivets and honest labour; the other spent much of its life in boardrooms, dining rooms and the sort of establishments where someone else takes your coat. Put them together carelessly and the results can feel at best confused, and at worst like you got dressed in the dark.
For years, the default styling rule was simple: denim was casual, tailoring was smart, and never the twain should meet. A sharp suit demanded sharp trousers, a crisp shirt, the immutable silk tie, while jeans were the bookend to trainers or rugged boots, and T-shirts. The trouble with rigid rules, however, is that they tend to age badly.
