The best dress pants for men should look clean and sophisticated, whether worn in a business casual setting, on date night, or at a social event. They should also be comfortable and easy to clean. Great dress pants are a critical part of any wardrobe, because even the most stylish dress shirt needs a strong supporting cast.
Our favorite pair is from Mizzen+Main, a menswear brand we love for its comfortable and stretchy office clothes. The Mizzen+Main Helmsman Chino pants are stretchy, lightweight, and breathable, while still looking traditional, which makes them ideal for warmer summer weather. Below, we've rounded up the best dress pants for men, an essential element in any workwear wardrobe.
Our top picks for the best dress pants for men:
Best overall: Mizzen + Main Helmsman Chino Pants - See at Mizzen + Main
Lightweight takes on a whole new meaning with these airy, four-way stretch pants you've got to try on to believe.
Best affordable: Uniqlo Slim-Fit Chino Pants - See at Uniqlo
Classic cotton chino fuses nicely with a clean, straight-leg cut, and the price is simply unbeatable.
Best for bigger thighs: State and Liberty Athletic Fit Stretch Pants - See at State and Liberty
These pants live up to their name, with a roomy yet tailored fit explicitly designed for bigger, athletic guys.
Most comfortable: Ministry of Supply Velocity Dress Pants - See at Ministry of Supply
The dress pant gets a futuristic upgrade with this brand's innovative stretch fabric.
Best for work: BOSS Genius Slim Fit Suit Pants - See at Nordstrom
Nail a perfectly dressy look with these handsome, expertly tailored dress pants.
Best stylish: Y.Chroma Apparel Skyline Pants - See at Y.Chroma Apparel
Premium construction and materials, plus vibrant color options, make these as distinctive a pair of dress pants as you'll find.
Best customizable: Indochino Harrogate Gray Pants - See at Indochino
The customization needn't be confined to bespoke ateliers, as this pair can be dialed in to your liking from the comfort of your home.
Best casual: Mugsy Whalers Corduroy Pants - See at Mugsy
Incredibly stretchy fabric and cool corduroy texture help "dress down" this pair ever-so-slightly.
Best stretch: Swet Tailor Voyager Trousers - See at Swet Tailor
Originally designed for the golf course, these feature a water-repellent blend of nylon and spandex for extra comfort.
Best performance: KUHL Freeflex Pants - See at KUHL
A stretchy polyester blend paired with an elastic waistband in a hybrid pair of dress pants that play well in a casual office.
Best warm: Wills All Season Stretch Wool Trousers - See at Huckberry
Bid goodbye to scratchy, uncomfortable wool trousers since these manage to both feel soft and deliver crucial warmth.
Best overall: Mizzen + Main Helmsman Chino Pants
Wearing even the best dress pants can sometimes feel cumbersome in extreme heat, but Mizzen + Main seems to have the proper response figured out. The answer? Develop a four-way stretch blend of polyester and spandex that feels light as air and breathes easy, all the while retaining the polish of a five-pocket chino. They're also designed to resist wrinkles, and there are color options in classic colors like a cool Charcoal grey.
Best affordable: Uniqlo Slim-Fit Chino Pants
This versatile pair of chinos features invisible side seams and an elastic waist in dense cotton twill that is wrinkle and dust resistant.
Don't overlook the best chinos for men when building out your rotation of dress pants. Uniqlo's version boasts side seam detailing, just like classic dress pants, plus a comfortable yet relatively tailored slim-straight cut. An array of timeless color options provides options for every day of the week, and that price tag makes it easy to buy multiple pairs at once.
Best for bigger thighs: State and Liberty Athletic Fit Stretch Pants
Squeezing into suit pants or finding dress pants that fit was once a chore for guys with larger thighs and a more athletic build. And yet, State and Liberty was founded with a laser-sharp focus on solving that problem, from blazers to dress shirts and these expertly cut dress pants. The performance blend fabric moves with you and offers a tapered fit with plenty of room (but not too much), while these can easily be matched with a State and Liberty blazer for a cool, tailored look.
Most comfortable: Ministry of Supply Velocity Dress Pants
Dress pants remained essentially unchanged for years, often made of classic wool, until Ministry of Supply came along and changed the game. They've quite literally engineered a new way to think about dress pants, using wrinkle-resistant, 4-way stretch fabric boasting next-level features like natural odor control. Yet, they still feature timeless dress pant details like front slash pockets and two clean, sharp fit options. They should prove comfortable enough for all-day wear and even business travel.
Read more about Ministry of Supply in our review of the best work clothes for men,
Best for work: BOSS Genius Slim Fit Wool Suit Pants
Some dress pants separate themselves from the pack with a super-crisp design — in fact, it's hard not to love sharp, dressy, creased-front pants. The BOSS brand and its subsets, like the Genius line, specialize in these. Wool fabric is elevated even further with a comfortable stretch, turning these into comfortable pants fit for day-to-night wear.
Best stylish: Y.Chroma Apparel Skyline Pants
The Apparel Skyline Pants are an eye-catching take on classic men's dress pants.
Y.Chroma Apparel is all about reimagining what you thought you knew about menswear. The brand is bold and vibrant, taking cues from surf and skate culture yet putting a refined spin on those typically youthful pursuits. That approach manifests itself in the visually appealing Skyline Pants, which are classic enough to wear with chunky leather loafers and edgy enough to wear with beat-up dress boots. They're stitched in Bulgaria from a blend of cotton and Italian elastane, and Y.Chroma's color selection is simply immaculate.
Best customizable: Indochino Harrogate Gray Pants
You've got the world of premium tailored style at your fingertips, so to speak, with customizable options from Indochino. It's easier and more efficient than ever to add a little flair to your rotation of the best dress pants for men, with customizable fabric and lining options available. And seeing as these pants already come in Indochino's excellent cashmere blend, you're already starting at a proper jumping-off point.
Read our full Indochino chinos review.
Best casual: Mugsy Whalers Corduroy Pants
Is it possible for a pair of the best dress pants to actually be, well — more casual? In the hands of Mugsy, the answer is a resounding yes. The brand's thin wale stretch corduroy boasts the eye-catching texture of corduroy, but the lightweight stretch fabric makes them a reliable option for chilly fall and winter days, too. Plus, the five-pocket design and washed-out colorway are both slightly more laidback if you prefer a pair of dress pants with a (slightly) more easygoing look.
Best stretch: Swet Tailor Voyager Trousers
Shopping for a new pair of dress pants is an opportunity to think outside your usual dressing habits. In the case of Swet Tailor, that means using an absurdly stretchy yet durable fabric blend of nylon and spandex, the kind you'd more commonly find on the links during a round of golf. But with a slim-straight cut and a tapered finish at the ankle, these are dressy enough to pull double-duty at the office, while a handy zipper pocket is ideal for your EDC on the road.
Best performance: KUHL Freeflex Pants
Some style scenarios call for dress pants with a touch more performance than average, and that's where KUHL comes onto the scene. For visiting job sites and stepping out of your office (or for heading from downtown to the trail to the pub), opt for a flexible pair of poly-blend pants with a comfortable elastic waistband. They're also built with UPF 50+ sun protection, and they feature a timeless straight-leg fit.
Best warm: Wills All Season Stretch Wool Trousers
For as much as it provides warmth, wool can sometimes be famously uncomfortable. Huckberry's in-house brand Wills takes on that issue in a satisfying fashion, using a brushed Japanese wool-blend fabric for extreme softness. For added shape, these pants are lined through the knee and boast distinctive chambray pocketing. You can even pair them with a blazer in a matching color for a seriously cool, complete suit.
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