Permanent turn-ups—known as cuffs to the Americans—have come and gone through fashion over the years. The standard advice given on whether or not to hem trousers with turn-ups is to put them on pleated trousers and not on flat-front trousers. This is just a guideline some people follow and by no means is it a rule.
The English aren’t nearly as fond of turn-upsas the Americans are. The traditional American trousers have a flat front with turn-ups whilst the classic British trousers have forward pleats and a plain hem. The only rule is that turn-ups should not be worn on formal wear.
Turn-ups have the benefit of weighing down the bottom of the trousers, which is especially useful at keeping lightweight trousers looking neat. Some people think that turn-ups aren’t flattering on the height-challenged.But by weighing down the bottoms,turn-upskeep the crease straight, and reinforcing that straight line isbeneficial to the shorter man. Today’s lighter and narrowertrousers truly benefit from the added weight of turn-ups.Shorter men should opt for shorter turn-ups around 1 1/2 inches deepwhilst taller men can wear turn-ups up to 2 inches deep.
Sean Connery’s Bond typically wears his pleated suit trousers with deep turn-ups—almost 2 inches—and his non-pleated without turn-ups. The exception to this is in Goldfinger where his pleated suit trousers are all without turn-ups. George Lazenby’s Bond only wears turn-ups on his tweed suit, which is also his only suit with pleated trousers. Roger Moore’s and Timothy Dalton’s Bonds never wear turn-ups. Since 1995 when Pierce Brosnan took over the role, James Bond’s pleated and non-pleated suit trousers almost consistently haveturn-ups. Daniel Craig has continued to wear turn-ups on all suit trousers except the navy linen suit in Casino Royale‘s black-and-white pre-title sequence.
