The Best Dress Pants for Mastering Business Casual

For its Weekday Warrior Dress Pants, Bonobos mixes the best features from a stretchy adventure bottoms and standard suit pants. This formula yields a pre-creased dress pant that’s perfectly plain, and looks far more formal than it feels, while also providing all day comfort for the wearer and minimal wrinkles with repeated wear. A wide array of colors to choose from helps you match them to the shirts you already own, and several fit options help offer personalized sizing.

If you look back at what men wore in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, you’d be hard pressed to find skinny-fit pants. They were all what we now call regular-fit or even wide-fit — or sometimes called straight-fit. They had room in the thighs and tapered down toward the ankle. Drake’s Herringbone Trousers, seen here in gray, are a lot like these older pants. They have a classic vibe to them that doesn’t venture into costume territory. Made from tropical wool, they have a great construction that can be worn year round (yes, even in the summer).

Uniqlo’s softer approach to classic slacks results in a pair of dress pants with two-way stretch, so you’ll never feel constricted. There’s an elastic waistband, creases on both the front and back and the pants are cropped at the ankle, creating a more modern silhouette. These pants are perfect for everyday wear without worrying too much about being “precious” with your garments, given the price point.

Todd Snyder’s trouser mixes comfort and elegance perfectly, which pretty much describes the brand as a whole. With a cropped, tapered fit, a single pleat, and a drawstring, it’s a chimera of styles which come together seamlessly to create a garment that can easily be worn every day for work, happy hour, or weekend lounging.

Alex Mill has made a name for itself as a brand that elevated the basics to a new, modern feel. Their pleated pants are no different. At once totally casual while also being dressy enough for when it’s time to wear a jacket and button-down, these pants can easily be incorporated into your wardrobe for longterm wear. With the small detailing that’s become expectant of Alex Mill, like the subtle pleats and visible coin pocket, there’s enough eye candy to keep these pants from being anything but boring.

Brooks Brothers is an iconic name in the menswear industry and for good reason. Not only do these dress pants further the brand’s formalwear legacy, but they build upon it, infusing new performance fabrics and offering a more inclusive assortment of sizes.

These 99 percent wool dress pants, for example, are offered in sizes 30 through 50, and they come pre-hemmed, making them wearable from the moment they arrive. Not only that, but they infuse a classic quality their entire product offering, making it easy to style, pair, and wear.

Stretch pants both help with fit and comfort. And while many brands have tried, just as many have failed at providing a pant that looks and feels good. State and Liberty seems to be one of the few brands that have succeeded in making a quality pant with a dedicated following of men who found that traditional pants never quite fit right.

With their use of performance fabrics and tailoring principles, State and Liberty has produced a garment that’s functional and versatile.

Because of the ambiguous nature of what defines a “dress pant”, we’ve broadened the definition to include chinos in a few instances. Take Everlane’s The Performance Chino, for example. Ostensibly a casual pant, its sleek design and tailored fit elevates it to a dressier option while still giving you all-day comfort for a competitive price.

Do you ride your bike to work each morning? What about a 2.5 mile walk instead? Have you tried scootering? No matter your method, if you’re a commuter, these are the dress pants you should wear to work. While, yes, being seen wearing wool dress pants on a vintage cruiser would be cool, wearing something more functional is the way to go.

Rhone’s Commuter Pants look modern, come in over a dozen colors and are made from the brand’s proprietary fabric, FlexKnit, which stretches in four ways. Plus, there’s a zipper pocket so your valuables aren’t lost on your way in.

Spoke London uses Italian wool from Guabello, a storied Italian mill responsible for some of the finest fabrics in the world. It’s the perfect foundation for the brand’s Smarts, which are, as the name suggests, its most formal trousers.

It’s the small details of this garment which really make it feel expensive and elevate, including a hidden ticket pocket and a notch at the back of the waistband. Couple that with the Smarts trousers being half-lined for additional comfort and durability, and we’re sold.

At a semi-casual wedding, you never want to outshine the groom, but you do want to stand out still. Do it in a pair of flat front wool trousers, like these from classic clothier Canali. They’re made in Italy, lined to the knee and 100 percent wool. They’re the sort of pant that will always be in your wardrobe rotation for events that require you to dress up, but not stand out.

Incotex is known for its so-called tropical wool. The material is light, cool as well as soft and silky to the touch. Its production is also designed to minimize chemical use as much as possible. The result is an upscale-looking dress pant that feels breezier than most, making it a great pick for hotter days.