There's a particular stretch between late November and New Year when everything else in the wardrobe starts to feel like a costume, and satin trousers are the one thing that still looks like you made an effort without looking like you're trying. Party season, basically, but also any ordinary Friday when you want to feel less like you're still in your work clothes.
If you've never owned a pair, start with a straight or wide leg in a mid weight satin rather than anything slippery and thin, because the cheap ones crease the second you sit down and never really drop again, they just hang there with a map of the bus journey printed across the thigh. A better quality satin has a bit of body to it, so it skims rather than clings, and it recovers after you've been sat at a table for three hours. Colour wise, go for something that reads as a shade rather than a statement first time out, a deep bottle green, a pewter, a proper black with a sheen rather than a true silver or champagne, which show every mark and every pin from the tailor. Those louder colours are brilliant once you know you'll actually wear the trousers more than twice, but they're not where I'd start if this is your only pair. On fit, satin is unforgiving in a way cotton isn't, because it clings to whatever's underneath it, so go up a size before you go down one, and check the waistband sits properly rather than digging, since satin has a habit of rolling at the waist if it's even slightly tight. Watch the length too, satin needs to skim the shoe rather than puddle on the floor, otherwise you get that dragged hem look within a single wear, and a half inch too long in satin looks like a lot more than a half inch too long in wool. These trousers suit evenings out, work parties, dinners, the kind of occasion where jeans feel wrong but a dress feels like too much effort, and they're at their best from autumn through to the start of spring when the rest of what you're wearing is dark enough to let them do the shining.
Tomorrow morning I'd put mine with a plain black jumper, flat boots and nothing else fighting for attention, because satin trousers have already done the talking.
