h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would take issue with your statement regarding fashion. I have never bought a pair of trousers which I could wear without turning up four to six inches.

For some lucky people it may be a fashion thing. For others it is a lack of inches added to a lack of sewing skills.

Might I also add that in the U.S., we don't "turn up" the bottoms of our trousers, although if we did, we'd be doing it to our jeans, and in that case, Ah hah! We'd be putting "cuffs" or "cuffing" our jeans. (We did this A LOT in the 80s while at the same time flipping UP our collars a la "Miami Vice")

And you thought you had to be a tailor or seamstress to add cuffs to your jeans? Heck no, move to the US, fold them up and call them cuffs. (even though they're not cuffs at all in the proper sense of the word, and no one pretends they even tried to sew them.)

I meant you need sewing skills to avoid turn-ups - I can cut my trouser legs to length, but I can't sew a straight hem afterwards.

I gotcha. I was just trying to clarify that what you call "turn ups", we call "cuffs" or "cuffing" -- no sewing required. Not to be confused with properly tailored cuffs.

Actually, my 5' 1" mother taught me to hem trousers. Necessary, as everything she's ever owned needs to be shortened in one way or another. I've just finished a user page with a little lesson on how to do it in case you have some time on your hands and want to read it. See /P138980.

I advocate the use of 'turn-ups' or 'cuffs' on 'trousers' or 'pants' as a useful device for catching small objects.
The most entertaining example I have seen occured while I was commuting to the office on a train with automatic doors. A young lady had stormed down the steps onto the platform just as the doors were closing. She made it through the narrowing gap, but the doors caught the back of her long coat. As she tried to walk away from the door (and free her coat at the same time), the strain on the buttons was too much. One of them popped off, flew through the air in an arc, and landed in the turn-up of some city gent who was reading his paper. I nearly colapsed on the spot !! Once I'd recovered enough to speak, I told the lady where her button had gone, but she declined to ask for it back ! I often wonder if it's still there !