35 Best Casual Pants for Men 2025, According to Esquire

As much as we’d love to tell you that you always have to wear either dress pants or jeans to your email job and weekends at the bar, we can’t deny the existence of the vast category of casual pants. Jeans are casual, but we’re talking about the all the pants you’d wear to non-formal events—cocktail hour, a flight, and anytime you don’t want to go full dandy and wear a suit. Maybe you need something comfortable enough to travel in but not too casual if you have to head straight to a meeting from the plane. Or perhaps you’re in search of a new pair of golf pants. Either way, casual pants have impressive range.

In such an overwhelmingly broad category, we’ve made choosing a good pair very easy. From the dependable chino to the rugged cargo to, naturally, our all-time favorite jeans, we gathered the 30 best casual pants to match any vibe, any budget. We won’t, however, talk about sweatpants or track pants because we have separate stories for those.

Jeans the most casual of all casual pants. Fit and cut are deeply personal, but if you’re looking for some guidance, rest assured: we’ve tried, held, and beat up hundreds of pairs and can talk at length about the ones that actually matter. There are timeless, affordable icons like Levi’s 501 and Wrangler’s Cowboy jeans—what our commerce editor Luke Guillory calls the pair “every man on the Earth should be wearing” because of how universally flattering they are. There are also heritage classics like RRL’s vintage-inspired, small-batch pairs which fade and wear beautifully over time. And then there are our newer go-tos: perfectly baggy jeans from Abercrombie and Rag & Bone, and AYR.

A traditional chino is made of 100 percent cotton in a durable twill weave. We’ll accept different fabrics but really prefer a hard-wearing twill in an Earthy color if we’re calling it a chino. Stretch chinos are a different category, more on that in the next section.

Since what feels like time immemorial (really, the late 1800s), the style has been an integral part of a man’s wardrobe. Chinos are perfect for work or more casual summer weddings, but they really shine as part of an off-duty look. Pair a pair with a hoodie or chore coat to lean into the style’s military and workwear history.

The Best Stretch Chino Pants

Though given the name chino, stretch chinos—more than, say, a stretch denim—are really a category of their own. Instead of being made with 100 percent cotton, stretch chinos typically feature a touch of elastane or spandex for added flexibility, or they are just fully made from synthetic fabrics. The point is to be comfortable, look dressy, and never wrinkle. Our fashion snobs might turn their noses up here, but we know for the average guy, those three things are all they need.

The key to casual pants is to be laid-back but not too laid-back. Cargo pants certainly fit the bill, and they’re among the most utilitarian trousers out there. They’re distinguished by a looser fit, a panoply of sizable pockets, and hard-wearing fabrics (usually cotton or nylon). From mainstay brands like Filson to fashion-forward, oversized takes from Diesel, there’s a version for every guy—meaning even with a simple T-shirt, your look hits the trifecta: cozy, cool, and practical.

Yes, sweatpants are the comfiest things on the planet, but you can’t (please don’t…) wear them everywhere. If you want to have the ease of a stretchy waistband and the formality of regular pants, get some drawstring trousers. Both name-brand designers and contemporary labels are getting in on the action, and some options are so discreet that paired with an oversized sweater or button-down, no one would ever guess you’re secretly repping elastic. Prefer something more tactile, like a garment-dyed pair or some sporty trousers? There are plenty of those, too.

When we say work pants, we don’t mean white-collar work. The work is construction, forestry, mechanical, and the like. As with many other street-style trends, the fashion crowd has co-opted the function-first look (think Carhartt double-knees), but make no mistake: these can—and will—still help you get the job (getting dressed) done.

The Best Dressed-Down Trousers

You can also just wear your nice tailored trousers in a casual way. That’s totally an option. I would, however, tell you to go for a more sturdy fabric; a mohair or Super 150s wool (suit fabric) will always read a bit dressy. But the pants of from a durable, high-twist suit totally work when paired with a tee or trucker jacket.

While there aren’t strict qualifiers for the category, we tend to look for relaxed silhouettes, more formal takes. Wear them with sneakers and loafers instead of oxfords, derbies, or dress boots, and you’ll be sufficiently dressed down.

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What to Look for in a Pair of Casual Pants

Two things: fit and fabric.

There’s no single fit that rules the world of casual pants, but we might suggest going a bit looser since that’ll add an air of nonchalance to an outfit. But really, fit is about your preference. Do you want some ass-hugging Wrangler jeans? A wide chino? Some smart tapered suit pants? There’s a lot of ways to play it.

Fabric is where we’ll be prescriptive. Go for harder-wearing fabrics like denim, corduroy, or twill weaves. If you’re wearing a pair of suit pants, skip the formal soft wools and go for hearty flannels, high-twist wool, and chino cotton. That’ll let you wear them more and give them more character. That’ll inherently make them more casual.