Almost a year ago, I followed my wife's advice: we started watching FRIENDS again. And, to my surprise, it was incredible. The style I was desperately trying to create for my brand was there, right before my eyes — or at least, a source of inspiration.

There's something fascinating about 90s and 2000s TV shows. We go back to them for the plots, the nostalgia, the impossible apartments... But we often forget an essential detail: their style.

A style that has nothing to do with flashy fashion or ephemeral trends, but with a way of life. A style that would have taken over Instagram if the network had existed back then — a style that follows bodies, days, moments, with disconcerting ease.

And at the center of it all, one detail constantly steals the show: pleats. On trousers, on waistcoats... There are pleats everywhere.

The pleat: a tailoring gesture before becoming a fashion statement

Long before Joey, Chandler, or Jerry sported them on screen, the pleat was born in the tailor's workshops of the early 20th century. Men moved more, worked differently, walked further, always on the go. To meet these new needs, tailors devised this subtle fold that added volume, freed the hips, and allowed trousers to follow the body without pulling.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the pleat became a distinctive sign of male elegance worldwide.

Then it disappeared, came back, faded away again... As if waiting for an era that could truly appreciate it.

And that era was the 90s

American TV shows did something unexpected: they brought the pleat back into everyday life.

Look closely:

Chandler, in Friends, very often wears double-pleated trousers, paired with oversized sweaters, almost throughout the series.

Joey, also in Friends, effortlessly transitions from denim to loose, pleated cuts, with disconcerting ease.

Jerry Seinfeld, in Seinfeld, unwittingly became the champion of comfortable, wide-leg trousers.

Will Truman, in Will & Grace, embodies the modern New York silhouette: neat, tailored, but incredibly relaxed.

They had understood something that we are rediscovering today: well-cut, elegant trousers can be worn in a thousand ways — not just with a shirt or a jacket.

They lived, laughed, ran, hung out in coffee shops, climbed stairs, argued, fell in love... And their trousers simply followed them.

It was all there, right before our eyes

To spot all these silhouettes in TV shows, sometimes you just need to rewatch a few episodes and carefully observe what the characters are wearing. The wide cuts, the pleats, the volumes... It's all there, for thirty years, right before our eyes.

For those who want to go further, some YouTube videos brilliantly decipher the looks of that era. One of the best is a compilation of Friends' fashion moments, which shows how ahead of their time these silhouettes were — without me having to use copyrighted images (damn copyright).

When some inventions disappear... and others return

The history of men's clothing is full of brilliant inventions that have disappeared: ingenious details designed to accompany the body, erased by the speed and costs of mass production.

But that's a topic for another article — it says a lot about how we dress.

The pleat could have suffered the same fate. If it survived, it's because it meets a simple need: comfort and stylistic recognition.

Do pleats still have their place today?

We live in a world that loves simplicity, speed, clean silhouettes.

The pleat requires a little more: more fabric, more savoir-faire, more patience.

And yet, it's making a comeback. Because we realize that style is not about strict rules, but about freedom — exactly what 90s TV shows were already showing us with astonishing clairvoyance.

A personal note: when homage becomes the future

When I started imagining Gabardines Pantalons, I knew from the outset that the double-pleated trousers had to be one of the first pieces in the collection. Today, as I write these lines, that same piece has become a faithful companion — a benchmark, almost — and one of the major influences shaping my vision.

It is from this reflection that the concept of our Le New York was born: contemporary trousers that reintroduce the pleat not as a memory, but as a stylistic choice, an assumed homage.

Building on what the tailors of the past created is about inspiring those who come after us. Encouraging them, in turn, to shape something that extends what I have tried to do — just as those before me did, and as others will inevitably do.

Matteo Agostoni 
Founder - Gabardines Pantalons