Customer Service

Our “Blue Label” khakis are pre-washed and pre-shrunk.

We will add ½” to the requested length when hemming to allow for variations inherent to cotton during continuous washing and drying.

HOME CARE: If you care for your khakis at home, some shrinkage between 1% and 2% may result after several launderings.  To reverse the shrinkage process, hang dry your khakis while still wet; you may recover up to 1” in length.

PROFESSIONAL CARE: If you have your khakis professionally laundered and starched, they will size slightly larger than if cared for at home.

To reduce wrinkles without ironing, flatten your khakis while damp and lay out on a flat surface and let dry.

Enjoy your Bills Khakis! … and thank you for shopping at HANSEN'S.

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The Thinking Behind Bills
The inherent character of a hard to find pair of old style khakis makes Bills as much fun to market as they are to own. But it's why we make Bills the way we do that makes them even more unique. Bills are made better just for the sake of it... purely for the satisfaction of making a great product. It's an approach to business not found much anymore and the true source of our product's integrity. Of course, it's the finished product that our customers ask for by name.

What Makes Bills Better
Consider the time, the effort, and the money invested in replacing your favorite old pair of Khakis. Usually, you end up with something you don't like, don't wear, and don't care about. The costly and frustrating result is a personal stock pile of unwanted khakis. While wearing Bills Khakis, you will feel comfortable, solid and pleased. You will share this satisfaction with others who value good things. And when you decide it is time for a second pair, you'll know better.

Reviews

GQ: Pants of the Gods
GQ Magazine, October 1996- Given the insistent mantra of a certain ad campaign, it would be reasonable to conclude that even Zeus wore khakis. Which raises the theological question, What khakis possibly could have satisfied the top dog of Olympus? The timing is a couple of millennia off, but surely the old thunder maker would have been divinely happy with Bills Khakis. After all, these pants, though relatively new on the scene, derive their classic style from the trousers worn by such American immortals as MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton.

Bills are made from a parade ground-proper nine-ounce cotton twill. They have drill-cloth pockets so deep you need to dredge for change, plenty of room for comfort and a style that evokes distant echoes of marching boots and the manly stanzas of Sousa.

They did not come by such a heritage accidentally. Bill Thomas, the thirtyish former adman who is the creator of these martial masterpieces, bought army-surplus khakis as a college student until the supply dried up. "What I liked about them," he says, "is that they were so straightforward and so well made in their own simple, dumb way." Dumb, maybe like some old sergeant who thinks Catch-22 is a baseball stat but who can definitely get your tail out of a jam. Endearing and enduring. Not simply something to wear, but, says Thomas, "more like a piece of equipment."

After college Thomas went back to his hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, "on a mission," and in 1985 he started a small company to make classic khakis. Today he turns out a modest 25,000 pairs annually and sells them for between $70 and $85 through mail order and a select 125 stores. "We take a microbrewer's approach," Thomas says. "We're always just at the edge of being able to handle the demand." Unlike the khakis themselves, which can surely handle with ease any snafu Zeus throws your way. - OWEN EDWARDS

Men's Journal: The Killer Khakis
MEN'S JOURNAL, March 1997 - To Bill Thomas, a great pair of basic, old-style khakis is more than just a pair of pants: "Genuine khakis are a true American art form," he says. Which makes him pretty much the Winslow Homer of trousers. Thomas started selling a few pairs 10 years ago; now he's shipping 25,000 a year. Slipping into a well-washed pair of Bills Khakis feels like donning a piece of history. Each pair matches the rigorous standards set more than half a century ago for military khakis, including indestructible twill seams, heavy brass zippers, and an overall durability that would have made General MacArthur stand at attention. Corncob pipe not included.

Cigar Aficionado: The Khakis
May/June 1997 - Khakis and jeans have been the great levelers of the American wardrobe, the most democratizing items of clothing ever worn. Everyone, from film star and computer tycoon to dockworker, has a pair of jeans, and knows that Levi's 501's have never been bettered. But What about Khakis?

For GIs returning from the Second World War, khakis were the all-purpose trouser; worn with a tweed jacket or a Shetland crewneck and button-down, they became an essential part of the cicilian campus uniform. In the turbulent 1960's and 70's khakis were often replaced with jeans, but they held their own and, in the past 20 years, have reemerged as a staple of the wardrobe. Tese days every designer has his own spin on the genre - so tarted up in some cases that it would make an old Army-Navy store devotee shiver - and no outfitter of sensible clothes would be without a supply.

Genuine old-style khakis are made by Bill Thomas in Reading, Pennsylvania. Bills Khakis, as they are called with genuine simplicity, are the real thing: substantial, eight-and-a-half-ounce 100 percent twil cloth; full cut in the legs, seat and rise, from Second World War patterns; deep 14-inch drill-cloth pockets; eight stout belt loops. Nothing fancy, just pure quality. Bill does a pleated model with a heavy brass zipper, but the pants that hiked across battlefields and athletic fields are the plain-fronted, button-fly model. These are the most comfortable and durable khakis you can buy.

View Available Bills Khakis Models