Menswear for most of us is very limited. And this is especially true when it comes to your bottom half. Tan, navy blue, black and grey are the basic range of colours men wear. But these colours are too dull and they are everywhere. That may be changing though. A close look at what colours the men in Nairobi are boldly wearing indicates a growing inventory of bright pants. And the business logic in all of this is: "Strong coloured clothes are less interchangeable than dull coloured clothes and therefore require you to buy more pairs."
Someone may ask, why not just wear colourful shirts? Well this is because shirts have an in-built limitation that colours don't. A shirt's shade of colour has to blend with your complexion because it's right next to your face.
In order to wear bright pants, you have to be the nicest, most polite, friendliest person in the room. That's because someone wearing, let's say red pants, may cause people to assume that they are obnoxious. So hold doors open, let everyone go ahead of you, and always smile :)
Introducing a bright colour shade onto half of your body means the other half should remain conservative. Go with a simple blue or white oxford shirt so that you don't have two big blocks of colour. Like let's say you want to wear a pair of orange pants, a navy blazer would go down well with this. Your belt and shoes should also be neutral - and no polka dot socks (like I've seen some people do).
Ease into your cheerful pants by wearing them on the weekend or during a vacation, and not to the office. To the degree that your office has a dress code, official or not, you're likely breaking it. You're calling attention to yourself, so make sure your work is getting done.
Women love a guy in vibrant colours. I've been stopped on the street by women complimenting me on them. I can't speak about this in a dating sense, but women seem relieved to see a man who's dressing a little differently. If you're worried that bright-coloured pants will make you appear to be less of a man, you've got things backward.
Nothing you wear should ever make you feel physically or psychologically uncomfortable, so if this trend makes you uneasy, then just let it pass you by. But if you feel as if you've laboured under denim's bondage for too long, there's nothing like a pair of mint-green flat-fronts to offer liberation. Just know that at least once a day someone will call you "Mr Fancy Pants".
