The Camel Plaid Cafe Capris (Or, If I Lived in a Castle)

One of the things that I ordered during the recent 25% off at JCrew are the elusive camel plaid cafe capris. These soldout in a few days after they rolled out but I was lucky enough to catch a popback during the promo. I wasn't sure that the 0 would work because these are lined and I think that these year's version of the unlined ones runs smaller than last year's. In any case the 0 was the only size that was available when I ordered them so I didn't have the choice.

My first thought when I received them was "OK, but this is not camel". The color is more of a pale shade of olive green. Not that I dislike it since it is a color that is flattering on me and I have plenty in my closet but I was expecting camel since they are not called "Olive plaid cafe capris".
At first I didn't like them, they reminded me of grandpa pants. But this thought left place to this glorified version "If Audrey Hepburn had married an Englishman and she had retired in a British castle, that's what she would have worn to wander around".
Truth to be told, they are awefully cute. The fabric is a thick wool that UNLIKE the herringbone one is very soft and not itchy at all. And they are lined on top of that (I don't mind the wool cafe capri being unlined as they are lightweight but when the wool is this thick the lining is a must). So, well done JCrew.
They fit TTS, the 2 would have been too big. The thing that could bother some is that if you are not thin like a stick and you have some flesh around you hip bones, the straight lines of the plaid pattern will curve to follow your body contours, iykwim. This is typical of plaid pants but it is more visible in these because the background is light and the lines are dark.

Here are a few styling ideas. With these pants you can wear charcoal (the dark lines are charcoal and not black), black, white, ivory, olive, red and orange.
With an ivory sweater (this is from last year, can't remember the name but the color was "vintage champagne"):

With my favorite dark charcoal turtleneck (you can wear black instead but charcoal is softer):

If you have one of the olive cashmere sweaters from last year (or was it two years ago? Time flies!, that's a perfect tonal match for these pants. I like my pocket zip cardigan with a pop of red under it:

As you can see these work with a pair of short boots, in case you are worried about ankle exposure in the cold weather. The thick fabric makes them more suitable than other cafe capris to be worn with boots because the boot won't show through and the hem won't stick to them thanks to the lining. But I am short (5'2") so maybe this won't work on taller ladies.

With a blazer, for a "hunting" look. A hacking jacket in a red color would work great:

Where is my horse?

These are keepers for me. Last year I bought and returned the plaid ones that came out around the holidays because I didn't want a pair of pants that I would only wear a month in the year. These are a great alternative because while very cozy you can wear them all the season as they don't have "holidays" stamped all over them. I am almost sure that at some point they will popback in all the sizes, otherwise some stalking should pay off if you really want to get them.

What do you think of the camel plaid cafe capris? Are you interested in them? Do you think they look like grandpa pants?