Last week I wrote about a pair of £38 sandstone M&S cargo trousers that filled what I described as a “cargo-pant-shaped hole” in my autumn wardrobe. Well, it turns out there was more to the story.
Today at M&S' autumn press day I discovered the sandstone pair was merely the first installment in this epic. The same trouser arrived online today in both dark khaki green and inky black – and somewhere along the way they’ve acquired a new name, too: the “bargo”.
Yes, really. The love child of a barrel trouser and a cargo pant, and I’ll be darned if they aren’t shaping up to be one of the most endlessly useful everyday trousers of the new season.
Seeing members of the M&S press and design team wearing them in various ways, as smart pieces with a jacket and shirt, and finished off with kitten heels, or casually with a v-neck collared jumper and loafers, ballerinas, or slingbacks made me even more convinced that this trouser hybrid is a total winner.
One good trouser, worn many ways, in three colours: sometimes that tells you more about an item that could be easily overlooked, than any amount of fashion theorising.
Regular readers will know I am not an advocate of faddy shopping and I very rarely shop for myself, but I do take notice when something genuinely useful comes along. These are pure cotton, £38, cut in that flattering curved barrel shape, and feature leg pockets, and poppers at the ankle so they can be worn wide-leg, or cuffed.
Best of all they come in four leg-lengths, from extra short, petite, regular and long from sizes 6-24. Honestly, they look spot-on with almost everything and, crucially, can do flats, trainers and boots by day and a heel at night.
The bargo is a hybrid we didn’t know we were waiting for: part cargo, part barrel trouser and entirely suited to how we want to dress now. And, though the sandstone pair are down to their last few sizes, the dark khaki and inky black are, at the time of writing, fully stocked.
