麻生太郎西褲被揭有“玄機”

Japan'snewly appointedprime minister, Taro Aso, is beset by problems from the sagging economy to food safety scares, but creased trousers need never be among them.

Domestic media hungry for tidbits of information about the dapper new leader of Japan's main ruling party have zoomed in on his unusual suit trousers, which are made with tiny lead weights sewn into their hems to help them hang properly.

"It's something that's often done with ladies' clothes, to put little weights in the hem, but it's highly unusual for gentlemen's outfits," Aso's tailor Seiichiro Moriwaki said in a telephone interview.

The 76-year-old Tokyo tailor has been making suits for Aso since he was a student at the exclusive Gakushuin University more than 40 years ago.

The idea for the weights came up in a discussion between the two, but it never caught on with other customers, Moriwaki said. "We do it just for him."

It's a trick also used by French design house, Chanel, who traditionally put a narrow chain in the hem of women's jackets.

Aso, 68, was born into a wealthy family of politicians and Japanese TV channels have been focusing on his luxurious lifestyle, with huge family lands on the southernmost main island of Kyushu and a large home in an exclusive part of Tokyo.

"He likes English-style suits, because he studied in London," Moriwaki said.

English tailoring has a long history in Japan, where one of the words for suit, "sebiro," some say derives from Savile Row, a street in London known for its bespoke suitmakers.

日本新任首相麻生太郎可能會受到國內經濟減退和食品安全等一系列問題的困擾，但他應該從來不用擔心自己的褲子會起皺。

這位穿戴講究的日本自民黨（日本第一大黨）新任總裁引起了國內媒體的極大興趣，近日他穿的西褲竟然也沒逃過媒體的眼睛。據說麻生的褲子有些特別，由於他的褲腳邊內縫入了微量鉛墜，所以顯得特別挺。

麻生的裁縫森脅清一郎在一次電話採訪中說：“在衣邊加鉛墜的方法常用於女裝，但在男裝中卻很少見。”

今年76歲的森脅裁縫40多年前就開始爲麻生做衣服，當時麻生還是學習院大學的一名學生。

森脅說，在褲邊加重的想法是他和麻生一起討論出來的，但他們給其他顧客做衣服從不採取這種做法，“只有他的衣服這樣處理”。

法國時尚名牌夏奈爾也常用這種方法處理服裝，他們通常會在女士夾克衫的衣邊裏縫入一段窄窄的鏈子。

68歲的麻生太郎出生於一個富有的政治家庭，他奢華的生活方式一直是日本電視媒體關注的焦點，麻生在日本最南端的九州島擁有大片私人土地，而且在東京高檔住宅區有一幢大別墅。

森脅說：“他喜歡英式西服，主要是因爲他在倫敦留學過。”

英式裁剪在日本歷史悠久，日語中sebiro（男士西服）這個詞，就源自倫敦的Savile Row 街（“高級紳士服街”），這條街道十分著名，街上的裁縫店專爲達官貴人訂做西服。

Vocabulary:

creased:弄皺的

dapper:整潔的；衣冠楚楚的