Seeking affordable dress pants - some questions

[zerostyle]

Hi all,

I've been looking for some nice but not too expensive dress pants. Let's call it a budget of $125, but would really like to keep it under $80-100 if possible.

1. How important do you think it is to go with wool over cotton?
2. For wearing them year-round, what do you think is a good fabric weight (they seem to range from 250g to 350g or so). I'm in DC which has very hot summers, and would prefer to err on the side of a sliightly lighter weight and be colder in the winter rather than be too hot in the summer.

I was looking through Howard Yount's site, but everything seems to be in the $160+ range. I also wanted a simple medium grey, but was overwhelmed with all their choices.

The classifieds are an option, but I find that it's really hard to find a simple grey 32 waist pair of pants there, and I need something fairly soon.

What are your go-to office pants? Maybe just get some cheap grey chinos for now (banana republic or whatever for $40-50) and try to hunt down some nicer wool pants later?

 

[mensimageconsultant]

Wool vs. cotton depends mostly on the office culture and rank.

Lands' End has respectable pants in both wool and cotton in that price range.

 

[Michigan Planner]

I have a mix of wool and cotton trousers but generally prefer the wool as I think they drape a bit nicer and breath a bit more. In your price range I've had good luck with LL Bean's "Year Round" wool pants. They are definitely cut a bit more full than what you will get from Howard Yount (or Banana Republic for that matter) but you could always have a tailor slim down the legs a bit if desired.

They are generally about $110 but if you keep an eye out on their site, they are often marked down 10% or 20%