The Case AGAINST spending money on dress pants: Wool dress pants, trousers, whatever you want to call them, they exist in a style no-man’s-land. And it’s expensive real estate considering what they cost. A full suit or well pressed cotton chinos can fill in during almost any situation you might reach for trousers. If the situation is more dressed up? Put on a suit and tone it down by going tieless or pair it with something like a chambray shirt and cotton tie. If the situation is dressed down, break out the starch (go easy though) and make sure your cotton chinos are pressed and free of any noticeable wear. Dress pants are what’s normally worn by the business casual set. Invest in a suit and wear the pants separately if you’d’ like. The next time that you’re thinking about buying a pair of dress pants… hold off. Save up and spring for a new suit down the line instead.
The Case FOR having solo dress pants in your arsenal: What are you wearing with your blazers & sportcoats in the fall and winter? Just cotton chinos and jeans? Wool trousers have always been a staple of men’s style. While the rest of the world might default to jeans, a guy can look super sharp in a pair of wool trousers, a crisp shirt, and a sweater. Wool trousers are also good for experimenting. Stick to solid suits, maybe a pinstripe, but go bold with pants if you’re on a limited budget. That way you’re not stuck with a plaid suit you won’t wear that often.
Your turn guys. To the comments. Do you own a bunch of dress pants? Or do you stick to jeans, chinos, and then jump to suits? Leave it all in the comments below. Pants above: Bonobos Aringabones – $87.50 w/ SALEBOAT
The problem with wearing the suit pants by themselves all the time is that they tend to wear faster than the jacket. Although I’ve been told that buying another pair of the same dress pants is the remedy for this.
I go for the best of both worlds. Wool blend pants.
(Almost) as comfortable as wool pants, feels great against the skin, looks MUCH sharper than cotton pants and chinos and yet, is machine washable and not as expensive as 100% wool.
Yeah.
The problem with suits, for me, is dry cleaning. Yes, I know we shouldn’t do it often, but I sweat in my pants and am not about to go a dozen wears w/o cleaning them. So I get machine-washable dress pants that look good, and use them a lot. Hang to dry. Those, with a dress shirt and blazer, are my go-to work outfit. They’re a little dressier than chinos. I’ve started also buying two pairs of pants with suits to help keep those suits “alive” as suits longer – pants certainly wear out faster than jackets simply because I have to clean them more often.
I think how you feel about wool dress pants comes down to how you feel about wearing a tie without a jacket. I think the tie but no coat look has been unfairly maligned. You have to look at it through the lens of what everyone – sartorially inclined and otherwise – is wearing. Only the most discerning eye condemns tie-shirt-no jacket. You’ll never go wrong with sharp pants, a well-fitted shirt and tie in my opinion, and I think something so small as a tie clip and rolled sleeves ensures you’ll look just fine.
I own several pair of dress pants and get many compliments for what I consider simple clothing combinations. Women and the bros say the details make it good. Plus you can wear blazers with these “odd trousers”.
I feel like it’s really obvious when you wear chinos as opposed to trousers. Cotton twill is a thicker material than worsted and is usually shinier with a stronger nap. I’d rather specialize with jeans or trousers under a jacket than compromise with chinos.
I think the dress trousers are a clear step up from chinos. Chinos I wear to work when I know I can get away with something a little more casual. Wool trousers are the go to most days from about October through March. In the summer I lean chinos, poplin, lighter weight stuff. I find chino to look the least dressy of all my options.
I don’t own wool dress pants, except a few tweed/flannel heavy wool pants. I don’t really feel I need them, but I’ll probably buy a pair or two eventually. I just bought a bunch of chinos from different places, I think I have enough pants for a while.
I 100% agree. I own a few pairs of “gabardines” and this is what I wear to work meetings because our offices are business casual (I work out of my house), nicely tailored, partially lined with a long sleeve button down or polo is a classic look w/ loafers.
Very true and unless you buy suit seperates (Brooks Brothers, J Crew, Banana) the pants will be well worn before the jacket.
Living in New England, they’re not.
To me this really depends on your blazer/sportcoat inventory – the more of those you have, the more of a need separate wool slacks are.
Dry-cleaning wool pants gets absurdly expensive in some parts.
Inquiry: Where is the shirt in the picture sold?
I couldn’t agree more. As long as the pants and shirt fit well, you can still look really good with a tie and no jacket.
Any time I see someone in dress-trousers, or the like, I immediately think of doormen and office security guards (especially if it’s the charcoal pant/navy blazer combo). Not a good look. Chinos may evoke thoughts of the J.Crew/BB/GAP/etc. frayed or distressed casual pants, however, a cotton trouser that’s pressed, professionally cuffed (rather than turning up the hem) and happens to be a shade of khaki looks every bit as professional and polished with a sport coat or blazer as, say, someone that wears just the bottom half of a suit. When I see most men wearing just the suit bottom and shirt combo it’s usually in the vein of: square-toe slip ones, gaudy belt buckle, ballooning dress shirt with forward-point collar sans the stays and wrap-around sport sunglasses (and I live in NYC).
Never even considered this as a debate. Nice dress pants fill a hole that chinos can’t and that I don’t want to use suit pants for.
Given the pants are Bonobos, and its one of their model shots, I’m guessing the shirt is sold by them as well. http://www.bonobos.com/extended-tab-straight-leg-grey-minibone
I didn’t see the shirt on a quick pass of their current selection, but you could probably email the Bonobos ninjas (customer service) and ask about it. They’re typically very helpful.
Sidenote, I grabbed a pair of those pants and am really excited to get them.
In my workplace, I can’t really go as formal as a suit, even dressed down as Joe suggested. Where I’ve settled then, is odd coat and (sometimes) tie, which seems to pass without occasioning comment. What then, is one to wear in winter besides wool trousers? I am for them.
Second that – not to mention, when I have a perfectly tailored shirt, I don’t want to hide it with a jacket. Especially when it showcases a well-built stature. Otherwise, buy a sweet suit and then cheap-o shirts you can just hide underneath it. I mean, you only see about 20% of them with a tie and the jacket buttoned up.
Not to mention when it is 100 degrees out and you have to walk a total of 2 miles a day from home–>train–>office and back.
In re charcoal trouser/navy blazer: I guess that might be a conclusion born of living in NYC. It’s a staple of the WASP closet where I’ve been from — though I admit you don’t often see it in the City.
True, but that should happen infrequently.
you nailed the stereotype! hahaha those same dudes are abundant all over Chicago as well… do you ever see the bulky white lace-up running sneakers for the commute to the office? that is always a favorite of mine
However, this is how you associate dress-trousers in your mind. when I see them in a color/fabric/pattern that i like, I imagine they are well-tailored trousers paired with double-monks or wingtips. Add a slim, leather plaque belt and then a nice dress shirt/tie/sweater combo (im thinking fall, here) and I think it has a nice look that isn’t a suit, but isn’t overly casual.
especially when jeans are not part of the dress code…. like Joe suggested, what do I wear my with my blazers/sportcoats??
It’s funny that we would question the necessity of wool trousers when the usefulness of an odd jacket or blazer seems to go without saying. And unmatched blazers and trousers go together like peanut butter and jelly.
In the legal world, there are different courts and different reasons to be at court that demand different levels of formality. If I’m doing a small hearing or simply making some kind of appearance in justice court or city court, I can get away with wearing nice-looking chinos, shirt, tie, and odd jacket. But for a trial in those courts, or for any appearance “upstairs” at district court, it would be seen as disrespectful not to wear a suit or, at the very least, a dressy blazer and wool trousers. Is there a dress code? No. Do people – including the judge and the other lawyers – notice and hold it against you? Absolutely.
Suits are the standard for formal business attire, but when your occupation requires you to dress up on a daily or near-daily basis, wool trousers are a great alternative and give you the opportunity to wear your other blazers and jackets while still looking appropriately professional.
Interesting that this comes up now because I have been having this debate with myself recently. I work in a business casual environment where most guys are in dockers, but my boss is the only guy consistently in wool trousers. I need to ditch the poly/rayon dress pants that I have been wearing and get some better quality pieces. My feeling was to get a couple of pairs of nice wool trousers in grays and fill out the rest in chinos. Maybe the opinions in this debate will help me finally decide.
Always reminds me of that scene in “My Blue Heaven.”
I think wearing pants from a suit is a bad idea as the pants already wear out faster than the jacket and the jacket is the more expensive part of the suit.
A tropical wool is also more breathable and much cooler than the type of cotton that you can pass off as dress pants. Really light chinos are great but don’t really pass in the office. I would much rather wear tropical wool on a hot day than cotton dress pants.
Wool also needs to be cleaned a lot less and lasts longer as a result.
It seems that most people who are thoughtful about style abhor the Docker. I tend to agree. Chinos are what they are — that is, classic — but Dockers are a child of the silicon valley move to “business casual” (which, as we know, is the proximate cause of the dot-com bust, the Iraq war, Darfur, the housing crisis and the LIBOR scandal).
As someone below mentions, wool blend is a nice easy-peasy alternative that will set you apart.
Nice slacks, dress shirt and a sweater is a great look. There are many who rarely get the sport coat or suit thing going. In many situations the slacks/shirt/sweater combo will already have you looking better than anyone in the room. Scenarios of ill fit shouldn’t apply here as I am certain we have all long fixed that issue.
You’re creating the impression that you showed up to work/ the event with a full suit/ suit+ sportcoat and things got so crazy/hot that you had to take off your jacket. I think that’s fine, but when you go to leave without the jacket, it feels like something is missing. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it creates this stylistic “stutter.”
My second issue is unfortunately based in prejudice (no, not racial). More that I associate people in shirts and ties only with uniforms and/or retail stores. My mind jumps to cell phone or car salesperson when I see that look. There’s nothing wrong with those professions, but I’m not sure that’s the impression you’re trying to convey. Again, that may be my own issue, but I’m guessing not given the historical malignment
I found a pair of wool Calvin Klein pants for $10 on sale. Its called buying during the off season.
It sound like your issue isn’t with pants themselves but the context. Meaning lots of people don’t get that look “right.” But if you do get it right, I think it looks better than the WASP, summer in the Hamptons, quasi-prep look you’re describing and doesn’t carry the baggage of those who do not.
If you get wool, go with the tropical weight, so they don’t seem or feel as heavy. The problem with Dockers isn’t the brand Dockers, it’s that they’re poor fitting. If you can get a pair of tailored chino’s, it can nearly as good as a pair of wool pants. So, I agree, get a pair of nice blue and grey wool pants and supplement with well fitting chino’s and you’ll set yourself above the rest of the crowd, without looking obsequious or that you’re trying too hard.
As a Vermonter, I couldn’t agree more. Chinos have their place here for about 4 months, whereas wool trousers are applicable for at least 6.
Ah, yes… buying during the “off season”. A concept with which Dappered readers are entirely unfamiliar.
Necessary for Physicians and other people who have a “uniform” (white coat)
I agree with Greg. You should definitely own some dress pants
Wool pants are noticeable nicer than cotton trousers or chinos. I have five pairs of wool pants, three pairs of chinos, and one pair of heavy cotton pants that I rotate through for work. And I rock jeans on Fridays (and today for some odd reason – gotta love Bonobos travel denim in the Las Vegas heat).
Need the dress pants,especially at my company where company dress policy is dress shirt and slacks. No one wears suits unless you have a meeting with a client. Also, they’re much nicer looking than chinos over time. Just use the suit rule for dry cleaning.
Honestly, I feel like cuffed, pressed chinos in khaki are WAY worse than dress trousers with no jacket. To me, cuffed, pressed khakis just scream “pleats” and “baggy polo” and “middle management.” I see far more chino-wearers with square-toed shoes, ballooning shirt, etc. than I do trouser-wearers.
Chinos and wool trousers can both be fine if they have a modern fit, but trousers are simply a step above anything chinos can achieve in terms of professionalism. Chinos + jacket is smart casual, at best. Wool trousers + blazer is standard business attire and can often be worn in place of a suit.
No real debate here – especially if you work in a business casual office somewhere cold. Try those chinos in the dead of January in Canada and see what its like. If your work place doesnt call for a suit everyday, and it is very cold out, you need some wool pants.
I am 100% for wool slacks. They look great and a good pair will FAR outlive decent-looking cotton pants. Sure, they cost a few bucks, but they are a good investment.
I too got a pair of those on the way. They should be here any day now!
I rock these all the time with my white coat, as we can’t just roll up to a patient room in a blazer. So a big yes for anyone in the medical field.
I used to work at an accounting firm where business casual (button down shirt and wool trousers) were pretty much the uniform. I did not want to use suit trousers when I was not wearing the full suit, since I didn’t want to unevenly age the trousers. So Banana Republic and J. Crew wool trousers (and disposable ones from Marshalls and Ross) were a sizable portion of my wardrobe. Don’t knock ’em!
saleboat is not valid anymore
Since this is the off-season for wool slacks, perhaps an entry about affordable options is due. Been looking for a pair for myself and have just been waiting for such a post to come up. Now I need more buying options. Wish more were shown in today’s post.
Agree with most of the sentiment. For someone that works business casual wool trousers are an office staple. You should not wear your suit trousers separately unless you are in a bind, e.g. traveling with only one suit. Well pressed chinos, IMO, cannot fill in for wool trousers, you are going to look less dressed than your wool trouser counterparts.
wool dress pants just look a little more slick than do chinos. that being said, chinos do have their place, and they can even look nice with just a shirt and tie without the jacket (as can dress pants) if everything fits right. but if you’re on a date or need to look just a little more sharp, if you have some well-tailored dress pants you just look a lot better. in addition, chinos and a dress shirt/sport shirt tends too look a little too much like student council meeting/substitute teacher/lame 90s office worker chic. and finally, dockers are generally awful, but the alpha line is pretty good, you just have to be a pretty slim dude to wear them.
Chinos do not fill the void. Look at anyone wearing them after 2 and they don’t look fresh at all and instead are a wrinkled mess. I can travel all day in dress pants and come off a plane looking neat and put together. Not so in chinos.
gotta have them. suit pants will wear/fade faster than the jacket if you wear them without, and many of us are in trouser/sport coat land nowadays. suit with no tie? not in an office, imo.
My sentiments exactly. If there’s a better complement to a Harris Tweed jacket than a wool dress pant I haven’t found it. I generally ditch wool pants for the summer but fall-spring I wear them to work whenever I’m not wearing a suit.