I Need Pants

[Huntsman]

Seriously. Since my office went business casual (blech) I find myself wearing dress pants a lot and that is fine but a little boring. When not at work I am usually to be found in my few remaining pairs of Earnest Sewn jeans, which are the only jeans I ever really liked. I don't wear chinos, really. They seem so blah. What I need is a kind of dressy trouser that I can wear to work or that I can wear casually with a nice shirt or a jacket. There has got to be something in between chinos and wool or cotton dress pants but I seem to not know what it is or where to find it. Ideas?

~H

 

[philosophe]

Two basic strategies occur to me: varying the trouser fabrics--corduroy and flannel in the cool months, linen and seersucker in the summer--and varying the trouser shapes. Have you tried the higher end of cargo pants, or something like the balloon pants from De Bonne Facture, or something from a Japanese company like Kaptain Sunshine or TS(S)? Something like the NoMan Brooklyn model from Rota, which is polished but not formal, also comes to mind. There's quite a range between traditional "office pants" and the dreaded sweatpants.

I agree with you that chinos are usually pretty blah, but owning a pair or two does come in handy.

 

[Zerase]

Seriously. Since my office went business casual (blech) I find myself wearing dress pants a lot and that is fine but a little boring. When not at work I am usually to be found in my few remaining pairs of Earnest Sewn jeans, which are the only jeans I ever really liked. I don't wear chinos, really. They seem so blah. What I need is a kind of dressy trouser that I can wear to work or that I can wear casually with a nice shirt or a jacket. There has got to be something in between chinos and wool or cotton dress pants but I seem to not know what it is or where to find it. Ideas?

~H

Sale - Trousers

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These are really really good at the current sale price.

 

[stuffedsuperdud]

First, you don't. None of us needs pants. Pants were invented by asshats 4000 years ago because they were oddly fixated on hiding their dongs from other people. Aliens who watch us the way we watch Nat Geo are probably like "lol those hairless apes are slaves to a thing called shame."

But if you must, two years ago I would have recommended Brooks Bros advantage chinos as the perfect dress chino, if that's a thing. They've since switched to a cheaper fabric that is neither here nor there and now we're just watching them devolve into J.Crew but without what sex appeal J.Crew has left.

Have you heard of Todd Shelton? I found out about them when they were an SF affiliate and absolutely love their stuff, which falls right into a sweet spot of elevated casual. https://toddshelton.com/pants The "cafe pants" might fit the bill.

 

[jeremygo]

Depending on your office, one option would be to lean more to the "casual" side of business casual. Think RRL officer chinos + an Armoury daywear jacket or dark wash jeans plus a chore coat.

 

[acconrad]

People here may hate my suggestion but this is my experience having also spent too much time worrying about pants:
I like tech pants. Think Outlier/Western Rise. The colors are subdued. The Quality of materials is top notch. They are stretchy without looking like tech pants which matters for me cause I have massive thighs. And they never wrinkle or look out of place in a casual/business casual environment.