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"Planning on flexing your sartorial muscles in the blog arena? You\u2019ll need to come packing. And no, we\u2019re not referring to your pocket square game. Every week on The Eye, we\u2019ll cover a basic term you need to know right now... before you get laughed off the internet.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nThey\u2019ve been called masculine, they\u2019ve been called lame. They\u2019ve been worn by soldiers on the frontline and by teenage video game addicts. They\u2019ve come in all colors of the camo rainbow but made equally available in high-end wool. The cargo pant is like the double-agent of the menswear world, simultaneously working for both sides of the field - the cool and the uncool.\n\nYou could even say that the cargo trouser\u2019s revival is tied to the fact that it was once uncool, that designers decided to flip the item on it\u2019s head, and turn them back into something desirable. Although, when the British military developed the first iteration of the cargo pant in 1938, desirability was probably the furthest thing from their minds--they ealing with was life and death, not aesthetics. As a result, the first cargo was a somewhat sloppy creation. The single patch pocket that the Brits had slapped on their BDU\u2019s (British dress uniforms) was poorly sized and impractical, which ended up defeating the purpose of the pocket in the first place. A few years later though, the U.S. military stole this idea and created their version, &amp;quot;paratrooper pants.&amp;quot; Crafted for paratroopers who literally had to jump out of a plane and be ready for battle the second they hit the ground, these cargo pants were perfect because they allowed supplies to remain close at hand. Based on the success of that paratrooper pant, after World War II the dual pocket cargo pant became standard issue for almost all branches of the U.S. military. Those two pockets made all the difference when a soldier was in a pinch and needed some extra ammo on the double.\n\nChris Paul rocking the updated classic in the pages of GQ\n\nFacebookPinterestchris-paul-6.jpeg \n\nOf course, like so many military inventions, it was only a matter of time before us civvies got our hands on the cargo pants. By the \u201990s cargo pants were ubiquitous across the country, with mall brand stores selling baggy versions to suburban teens, and surplus stores selling real mil-spec camo pieces to punks and rappers alike. Nowadays though, the cargo pant has now found it\u2019s way to the runway, with slender models showing off what are essentially classic tapered trousers with a slim-silhouetted pockets on the side. Neo-prep designers like Michael Bastian have helped to transform the frontline favorite into a utility pant for your daily battles, even if your biggest struggle is simply trying to find something that will actually fit into that minuscule cargo pocket.\n\nJake Gallagher writes the blog Wax-Wane. He lives in Manhattan.\n\nRead more Dropping Knowledge:\n\n Dropping Knowledge: The Polo Shirt\n\nDropping Knowledge: Jay Gatsby\u2019s White Flannel Suit\n\nDropping Knowledge: Bucks"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/dropping-knowledge-the-cargo-pant>