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Go Big or Go Home: 10 Wide Leg Pants You Could Totally Pull Off

Sell your skinnies. Oversized silhouettes are all the rage right now.

best wide leg pants Courtesy

By Evan Malachosky

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Long gone is the era of skinny pants. Designers are countering the skin-tight aesthetic with looser, wider-fit trousers, and some have taken it to an extreme: They’ve crafted bottoms that billow out at the hip, widen ever so slightly at the knee and run straight down toward the hem. But milder iterations prove more manageable for most men and should be an immediate add to your wardrobe.

However, the trend isn’t a sudden development. A year in sweatpants and other supple bottoms made us used to, arguably addicted to, comfortable clothes. How could we all go back to shuffling into skin-tight pants? We couldn’t. And shouldn’t. Switching from skinny to even straight-fit feels like quite the step, but it’s worth the effort to go a bit wider.

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How to Wear Wide Leg Pants

Wide-leg pants are far easier to pull off than most people think. In order to look the most natural in them, keep the oversized fit consistent throughout your outfit. Wearing wide pants? Go with chunky shoes, a wide cardigan or hoodie overtop your wide T-shirt. You need to keep it consistent or else you risk toying with your proportions too much.

Most folks worry about wider clothing making them look heavy. But truthfully, a wide-fitting outfit that’s consistently so from top to bottom will prove more flattering than skinny jeans or a skin-tight T-shirt, which squeeze and stick in all the wrong spots.

They’re Perfect for Footwear Fans

Although you’d expect a wide pant that flows out over your toes to be antithetical to showing off a pair of coveted kicks or kick-ass boots, relaxed-fit pants are actually perfect for footwear fans. If you wear skinny or even straight-fit pants, you have to worry about how the bottoms stack, a term for the way the fabric sits at your ankle. Wide-leg pants will cover some of your shoes, but there will still be plenty peeking out.

At the very least, you’ll never need to worry about rolling or cuffing your pants ever again — I, for one, appreciate this newfound freedom.

The Best Wide Leg Pants for Men

J.Crew’s new Giant-Fit Chino Pants made quite the splash when they appeared in Brendon Babenzien’s first collection as chief menswear designer. They’re well-made, super comfortable and the kind of staple most gravitate toward once fall and winter dressing starts to feel a little more routine. There’s no stretch — just stone- and enzyme-washed cotton twill — and the leg openings (which are 20.5 inches wide vs. just 16.5 inches on J.Crew’s relaxed-fit chinos) hang nicely around the collar of high-top boots or Chuck Taylors, especially with the polished, 1.375 inch affixed cuffs.

They’re a concentrated dose of ’80s and ’90s nostalgia strong enough to make you forget about the era’s lowlights — like frosted tips and padded shoulders.

You can read our full dedicated review here.

Part track pant, part swanky slack, Puma and Ami’s Wide Pant will work as well in sporty settings as it does in a steakhouse. The cotton-polyester pants feature a front pleat, an appliquéd logo on the thigh and an elasticated and drawcord waist for comfort.

Dickies’ 874 is an iconic wide leg pant. See? They’ve always been a thing. But this iteration is exclusive to Urban Outfitters. Essentially, all they’ve done is pick better colors and cut the pants’ hem off. That’s not much but it makes quite a difference.

When you think oversized sweatpants, you probably think of a wide pair with a tight ankle, which comes cinched but slowly opens over time. These, however, come with a flared bottom like a pair of vintage jeans. They pool nicely around a pair of sneakers. You should never wear them with boots.

Reese Cooper Cotton-Canvas Cargo PantsHBX

Best Wide Leg Cargo Pants

Reese Cooper Cotton-Canvas Cargo Pants

This is a designer rendition of the classic cargo pant. It features four flapped front pockets, faux adjustable draw cords and a tiny crap claw for attaching keys or a tiny attache. Plus, the pant itself is simultaneously soft and sturdy, because it’s made from brushed cotton-canvas.

Everlane’s Utility Pant references famous military styles, all while adjusting to the modern wearer. They come in two colors and are more relaxed than wide, really, but nonetheless comfortable.

Although A&F is in hot water with its new Netflix doc, White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, the brand is making better clothing than ever, even if this particular design harks back to the era in question. Wear these and you’ll earn the respect of both older folks and the fashion-forward youth. A people pleaser, for sure.

Menswear designer Darryl Brown relies heavily on the workwear aesthetic. He pulls from his own stint as a railroad engineer for most silhouettes, striking a balance between what he wore then and where the industry is now. His eponymous pant, the DB Trouser, is wide-legged, heavy and reinforced throughout.

Urban Outfitters’ in-house designs are always impressively on-trend. Sometimes that unintentionally angles its collections toward a younger audience, although a lot of the stuff is still OK for matured adults — like the Baggy Skate Fit Chino Pants, a kind of riff on Dickies’ 874, but bigger.

Fried Rice’s wide leg pants are unisex, which means the waist stretches to accommodate several sizes. The seat is spacious, too, and the hems feature a clever adjustable snap system.

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