Welcome to Pants Week, where the Strategist will be tackling all things pants-related (given that you’ll be wearing them pretty consistently from now through spring). Throughout the week we’ll be surfacing everything from the best jeans for men and women, to the best lounge-about-the-house-pants, to the best work-appropriate trousers.
Like most guys, I pretty much lived in jeans. I had a pair of biker Balmains that I wore basically for two years straight. One day, though, I tried on these Rag & Bone chinos and felt a light switch on. They don’t look like chinos — in black, they look almost like jeans, only the fabric is infinitely more comfortable, and ever-so-slightly looser and more relaxed (I’m always bending and moving, so it’s nice to have the flexibility). Like a pair of jeans, the button above the fly is a rivet (rather than the button on a pair of khakis that’s sewn on), which not only helps it look more like a pair of jeans, but also keeps it from ripping off when I sit down, which it would one hundred percent do because of how low I like to wear my pants.
Having them in black is critical of course (it’s the primary color of my elective uniform). It also means you get to see how the pants wear and fade just like a pair of jeans. I pull them on basically every day with a pair of Wolverine boots and vintage T-shirt. Now I own five pairs — the presentable one I wear pretty much every day, and four pairs that are grunged and torn and faded and stained that are in my closet right now for my days off. I’ll probably be on to pair number-six soon.
Unfortunately these are sold out, but here is a nearly identical pair in black.
I pretty much retired these after discovering the Rag & Bones, but they’re still a great pair I’ll wear from time to time.
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