alternative clothing

ChiPants

Gramicci

kilts

sporran

WW I sporran

ChiPants were a magnificent modification on bifurcated pants. Made with a seamless crotch gusset, these locally-made pants of 100% natural cotton and hemp were comfortable and acceptably dressy. I owned several pair.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a 15-second 7.1-magnitude tremblor, destroyed Laurence Ostrow's ChiPants Concepts Inc. flagship store (leveled), corporate headquarters (condemned), and manufacturer (also reduced to rubble). In the mid-1990s I met Laury at his new storefront, near South Park, but the [necessary] much higher prices doomed the second incarnation of this good idea.

Even an investment by George Zimmer, of the Men's Wearhouse, failed to revive the newly-titled Chi Wear. ChiPants, we miss you.