All dress pants need hemming. All. So get it done (or re-done).
When it comes to pant hemming, the “break” is arguably the most important thing. The break is the way in which the pant falls on the front of the shoe. It is basically that horizontal crease that forms — or doesn’t form — at the top of your shoe.
There are generally three types of breaks: full; medium; and slight/none. People call them by different names, but they are simply gradations of the amount of pant that falls on the front of the shoe. (It’s pant hemming, folks, not rocket science.)
A pant with a slight or no break has very little, if any, material that gathers atop the shoe. It’s supposed to be a very “high fashion” look. In my view, a dress pant with no break is a difficult look to pull off. Why? Because it means that your socks — and therefore your shoes — become much more noticeable when you walk or sit down. You have to be co-ordinated. No athletic socks, no dirty shoes, etc. Admittedly, the men who specifically ask their tailors for “no break” are aware of this, and they can normally pull off the look very well. Kudos to them. (I am not a member of this group.)
The medium break is by far the most common. It allows a moderate amount of pant to gather at the front of the shoe. Little sock is shown when you walk, and therefore the eye isn’t drawn to the feet of the wearer. It is, by all accounts, the “safest” of the pant hems.
Finally, there is the full break. In my view, no pant should ever be hemmed with a full break; it seems paradoxical to pay to have your pant altered in way that makes it look sloppy. Pant hemming is supposed to improve the look of the pant (and suit), not detract from it. I imagine that the full break made the transition to business attire from jeans, where it is common to wear the jeans as-is, with a fair amount of material gathering at the top of one’s shoe. This may be acceptable for casual wear (maybe), but the rules are slightly different for business and formal attire. And though some people will also suggest that full breaks are acceptable for tall men, or wide-legged pants, I would suggest that a medium break is still acceptable in those situations as well.
Emir Aly Crowne is a Law Professor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. He often takes “full breaks” during the summer months.
Photo by Mario Antonio Pena Zapatería