Evan Kinori’s approach to clothing is slow, methodical, and subtle, a monk-like meditation on menswear that defines much of artisanal clothing. Each piece is crafted in small batches to a ridiculously high quality and if there’s one piece in that defines the EK universe, it might be the Two-Pleat pant. It’s extra-roomy with a defined taper and clean break, made with finished seams throughout, corozo nut buttons, and a Hollywood-style waistband. But the kicker is the fabric, a Belgian linen with a fine yarn and tightly woven plain weave. It’s got a ton of texture, rumples beautifully, and will make you feel, in every sense, like the coolest guy in the room.
Best Linen Pants for Vacation: CDLP Semi-Tailored Trousers
Materials: 58% Tencel Lyocell, 42% linen | Fit: Relaxed | Sizes: IT44-54 | Colors: Umber, Off-White
Finally, pants that feel like pajamas but look a million ways away. CDLP’s pants would make anyone feel like royalty in their own home, which makes them the perfect pants for taking a “Me Day”. But when they look this good, why wouldn’t you show them off? The fabric blends linen with with a healthy helping of lyocell, a silk-alternative fiber that feels impossibly smooth with a gorgeous sheen. The result is a pant that you don’t really wear so much as luxuriate in. Even then, the crisp center crease gives it a dressed-up feel that totally disguises the fact that you stumbled out of bed.
More Linen Pants We Love
Abercrombie & Fitch Loose Linen-Blend Permacrease Trousers
Percival Linen Everyday Trousers
Reiss Kin Adjuster Slim-Fit Linen Pants
J.Crew Big-Fit Pleated Glen Plaid Linen Pants
Drake’s Games Pleated Linen Pants
Buck Mason Loomed Linen Fatigue Pants
Dries Van Noten Linen-Blend Trousers
Royce Hill Linen Work Trousers
Alex Mill Standard Pants
Frank Leder Pleated Drawstring Trousers
What We Looked For
If months of hardcore testing taught us anything, it’s that the best linen pants for men are still largely subjective. The GQ office is just as varied in body type, stylistic preference, and budget as the rest of the world; if you polled our colleagues, you’d be hard-pressed to land on a single winning pair in any category. By and large, though, we gauged the merits of each pant we tested across three key metrics: quality, fit, and price.
Quality, of course, is a broad and ambiguous term, but for our purposes, it meant mostly limiting our search to pants made exclusively from linen—or those with other natural fibers, like cotton and hemp, blended in. Synthetic materials aren’t always a no-go, but they tend to interact with natural fibers in unpredictable ways. Linen, on the other hand, has been around for thousands of years; the kinks in the fabric are natural, the kinks in the process that yields it have been worked out. We strived to prioritize options made with linen sourced from fabric mills we recognize and respect, but “strived” is the operative word here—every pair of pants on this list is worth your time, regardless of the zip code it calls home.
Thought quality was a head-scratcher? It’s nothing compared to fit. To narrow our search, we primarily focused our efforts on the three major silhouettes in pants right now: the straight fit, the slim fit, and the relaxed fit. Because we couldn’t help ourselves, you’ll find a smattering of baggier silhouettes—and one or two downright voluminous options—in the mix as well, which, frankly, complicated the process considerably, but ultimately paid off.
