Strange, is it not, that the Tailors (proverbially the most complacent, not to say timid, of men) should, without any plan or program or fuss or demonstration of any sort, unite as one man—or rather one tailor—and refuse to obey the unlimited monarch of the male fashions of the civilized world. What is the explanation?
There are two explanations. One is Commercialism.
There is no profit to be made out of a change in the geography of a trouser-crease. It is purely a matter of self-determination on the part of the inhabitant of the trousers.
If there were no more financial profit to be gained by the remaking of the creases in the map of Europe than is to be got out of changing the trouser-crease, there would be no call for a League of Nations.
Should some inventive tailor (inventive tailor!) devise a crease that could be woven into the very being of the Trouser, then it would be a very different matter. The slightest variation in the location of the crease would cause an upheaval in the (I’m tired of the word Trouser)—in the “Pant” market that would mean millions of dollars to the trade.
As it is there is no money in it.
The other explanation is that the story of King Edward or King George creasing the Royal Pants in any but the usual place is made out of whole cloth.
But let us suppose for a moment (just for the fun of the thing) that in some possible scheme or caprice of creation there were such a thing as an inventive tailor.
And the inventive tailor invented a permanent trouser-crease and planted it on the Eastern and Western frontiers of the trouser-legs.
What would be the probable effect of the innovation on the trouser-bearing species of the human race?