I feel like I get stuck in a rut with my style. Particularly when it comes to trousers—”jeans or khakis, which will it be today?” Since I don’t have a strong business dress code at work, those two categories of trousers are usually what I wear. Both are machine washable so I’m less worried about normal stains, and wear and tear is less problematic given their more rugged construction and fabrics. But I do have reason to dress up a bit more regularly—weekly church attendance as well as other social opportunities—where khakis just don’t cut it, let alone jeans. And those are the third category of trousers for me that I want to write about today.
Not counting full suits, I’ve got five pairs of flannel trousers that I wear in the winter (four shades of gray plus a pair in navy). But in the summer, what do I reach for? Many guys go for year-round wools, tropical wools or hopsacks. I’ll say right up front: I determined long ago that “year-round” cloths are not for me. I prefer to have seasonal clothing as much as makes sense (my caveat being that a year-round navy blazer and go-to navy or gray suits are good investments).
As for hopsacks, I owned a pair in light gray, and did not like the drape of the wool at all. It felt weird and incongruous to me—a dressy business trouser color, but they felt flowy like linen. I sold them.
In the tropical wool realm, fresco comes to mind as the best option—high-twist wool in an open-weave make them more breathable than linen, but without wrinkles (nearly at all). I haven’t bought any yet, but plan to pick up a pair (if possible) in mid-gray from Spier & Mackay at some point. That said, I’m not sure what other colors I’d consider (besides perhaps navy) simply because I associate gray strongly with business settings, and that’s rarely what I’m dressing for. Some guys go for cream and tan wool trousers—but I have a strong aversion to those colors in wool. I think it’s because I have a very specific memory of a used car salesman my parents bought a lemon of a 1989 Mercury Sable from, who wore cream wool (or probably polyester) slacks and a yellow shirt.
Given all that, and given that I still have a navy suit to reach for when I need to, I’ve come to really rely on and love cotton-linen blend trousers. As long as they are cut in a dress trouser cut—slant or vertical pockets, slightly higher rise, rear welt pockets—that looks good with a crease, they are a great step up in formality from khakis, but not quite all the way to wool business pant level. The benefit of a cotton-linen blend (the ones I’ve owned have usually been about 55% cotton, 45% linen or thereabouts) over pure linen is that it tempers the wrinkles that linen gets. They still wrinkle, but you won’t have accordion crotch. And they improve on pure cotton by adding visual texture and helping them to wear cooler.
My go-to pair for the last several years is a pair from J.Crew in their Bowery Classic fit, in off-white. I’ve used them as guinea pig trousers to try my hand at my own alterations, slimming them down a bit from their original, and amazingly they’re still going strong. That said, I wanted to supplement and/or replace them, so I picked up a pair of off-whites from Spier & Mackay. They have a slightly higher rise and side tabs, which give them a bit of a specialness that I appreciate.
One thing a lot of men worry about with white pants is whether they are see-through—particularly the pocket bags in front and back. In my experience, only fairly thick twill chinos or white denim don’t allow any show-through, and those will of course wear hotter. But with linen-cotton-blend trousers, it’s just the nature of the beast that you’ll get some pocket show-through. I’ve found that it’s most noticeable indoors where light is more diffused. Outdoors, the ambient light is bright enough that the outer fabric reflects enough light that the eye doesn’t detect the show-through.
That said, it’s definitely a consideration, and so I have a little rule: I only wear the off-white cotton-linen trousers when I’m wearing a sportcoat, which covers the areas in question. Otherwise, I’ll wear off-white chinos or jeans.
But cotton-linen is also a great fabric to make into the tans and creams that I shudder to see in wools. Basically any color that a khaki looks good in, a cotton-linen blend looks good in. Besides the off-white’s that I got, Spier & Mackay has navy, maroon and cream this season, in addition to a pure white. If I had more money, I’d have gotten the cream and navy pairs, and maaaybe a second pair in off-white.
J.Crew’s cotton-linen selection this season is limited: pale green, pale blue, mid-blue, or light blue houndstooth. Banana Republic has a pair of cotton-linen dress trousers in khaki this season (and I have to admit, BR pants fit me better than any other brand in this price range (their MSRP is high of course, but continuous sales means I’d expect to score those for less than $80—currently they’re 40% off, so $96 after discount).
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