Red trousers. When did these become fashionable for elderly gentlemen?

[TheTecknician]

I don't mean bright red crimplene flares that my Mum sported back in 1975. I mean the off-maroon corduroy and chino strides that have become alarmingly de rigeur over the last few months. They have now supplanted the beige (or pale blue) zippered jacket as the must-have fashion attire for the over-80s.

My old man pegged it three and a half years ago at the age of 88. He wouldn't have been seen dead in any shade of red or beige!

Very Perthshire.

See them at the farmers markets and the Perth show

As you wish ...

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Standard amongst UMC self important Nobby types since at least the early nineties.

When we were in France about 7 years ago it seems there were an awful lot of red trousers on men. So it's been around for a while, just maybe not migrated everywhere yet. Certainly not here in Canada; haven't seen any.

The French wear them so they can pick out the bed bugs more easily. *

*this may not be entirely true.

These are very towny perspectives.

Growing up in the countryside in the 80s there were tonnes around. Particularly farming types. Their wardrobes involved a lot of tweed, combined with red, green or mustard trousers.

Navy/black were for fancy city folk.

Smart casual wear for the country/farming community. Worn with tweed jacket and checkered shirt and a tie with some form of game on it.
It’s been uniform for decades. The younger men wear chinos with some variety of Schoffel waistcoat or quarter zip fleece. Schoffel is the new Barber, although the older generations still favour Barber to keep the tweeds dry unless it’s waterproof.
Oh, and compulsory flat cap.

DS 19 rolls with the “set” so has started to build up the correct wardrobe. He’s not totally sold on the look, he likes to be a little more individual, but for certain events is “compulsory”. To be honest I’d rather he dresses casual smart than in sweat pants, hoody and baseball cap with the man bag.

Much earlier than Portillo.

One of my uncles has been wearing these as long as I can remember (which is back to about 1965).

He's now in his 90s.

First encounter with red trouser types were ex public schoolboys (Eton a particular culprit) at university in the 90s. It’s a known stereotype. Maybe you are moving in some new circles OP? 😜

My fella wear deep red cords, mind you, he also has a collocation of cravats he wears as well.
He is a creature of the past, I feel!

True, but more in the Northeast. You don't see Nantucket red trousers much in the southern US where I live.

This thread is starting to make me feel guilty for having red levis as a teen

I think it's a longstanding norm among some demographics that periodically goes mainstream when the trend is for trad, nostalgia, countryside, "preppy", etc. I've very rarely seen bright red trousers or shorts on an adult male, though - just all the hues around it. Brooks Brothers out and out calls these ones "pink".

Working in the sailing world about 15 years ago I noticed the abundance of red trousers worn by my older male colleagues and queried it with one. I was told that you “earn the right” to wear red trousers once you have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. If you google this it is indeed a thing! Although I’m sure not all the red trouser sporting men are aware of this, so it may not just be a fashion faux pas they are making!

Thank goodness the fella is in the navy and is qualified to wear the pants, hahahaaaaa

Another one for this 👆

Since at least the 70s.

They sound great

Since at least the 50s in my personal recollection. Portillo's are all wrong as they are far too tailored and tight and definitely too common to be proper upper-class wear. They should be corduroy and baggy, dark red or mustard, as others have said. Corduroy trousers were definitely around before the war and considered appropriate for artistic types according to my grandmother and great-aunts who were born in the 1870s and 1880s. In my head I can still hear them saying it now! 😂

Portillo.

Portillo is Johnny-Come-Lately by about 40 years at least. 😂😂😂

In the 1980s, but for Hooray Henrys.

They're not fashionable - they're classic and traditional.

Interesting article from 2013.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/01/in-defence-of-red-trousers
The answer to the original question would seem to be "in the fifteenth century".

True of land agents and land owners but not normal people who live in the country, they just wore normal clothes.