A few weeks ago, I had a terrible realization. I needed new pants.
In theory, this should be a simple errand. Stores are crammed with pairs of every size, shape and material: wide leg, bootcut; high-waisted, elastic waist; denim, pleather. And yet, trying on pants inevitably feels to me like entering an MC Escher drawing. What looks like a regular pair of jeans on the rack will hang on me in a way that is both confounding and upsetting. It makes me envy Winnie-the-Pooh and his minimalist, top-only uniform.
Many people share my dread. When I brought up shopping for pants, friends said things like, “Ugh” and “That’s hell.” We had questions and no answers. Where does one find good pants? What style should one go for? And how should pants fit, anyway?
“There’s so many different variations of pants these days – everyone is confused by it,” says Samantha Dawn, a personal stylist and style coach.
The answers to a lot of these questions come down to personal preference. But there are some guidelines that will make it easier to find the right pants for you.
Try on a lot of pairs to find out what you like
Experts agree that the most important step of buying pants might be the most difficult: figure out what you like. How loose do you like your pants? Do you like them cropped or long? How high do you like the waistline to sit? Figuring this out will probably involve trial and error. Lots of it.
“It is studying the pants that you like on you,” says Sophie Strauss, a self-described stylist for regular people. When shopping in person, Strauss recommends grabbing “a big stack” of pants – “more than you think”, she says – in a range of two or three sizes.
Michael Maccari, adjunct professor and menswear design leader at the Fashion Institute of Technology, also recommends trying on “as many [pants] as possible”. Then, see what feels right to you, and remember which brands you like best.
“Wear the fit that works on your body type and don’t follow trends,” he says.
Don’t be swayed by articles or influencers who claim to have found the Perfect Pant. There have been hundreds of viral so-called perfect pants, says Strauss, none of which were perfect for everyone.
Companies are “banking on you not figuring out how pants work or what you like”, Strauss says. “And they’re banking on your feeling bad about it, because if you feel bad, you’ll buy another pair of pants.”
Consider comfort and function when it comes to fabric
When looking for pants, consider the fabric and whether it has stretch.
“A stretch fabric is going to perform radically differently than a non-stretch fabric,” says Michael Andrews, founder and CEO of Michael Andrews Bespoke.
For the sake of comfort, Andrews says that if you’re looking for a very slim fit pant, stretch fabric is usually the way to go. A fabric with 4% or 6% stretch will be much easier to move around and sit in than a non-stretch, all natural fiber – like denim or wool – which will likely be more stiff.
But there is a cost to stretch, particularly if you’re buying from a large clothing chain.
“With the advent of synthetic fabrics, our fast fashion and mainstream clothing production moved away from making sure things actually fit,” says Strauss. “They don’t have to fit any more, because they stretch.”
Stretch fabrics like spandex also have a far more limited lifespan than natural fibers. Synthetic fibers break down and shed over time. Not only does this poison the environment, it destroys the structure of your pants as well.
Cast your mind back to your favorite pair of skinny jeans from the mid-aughts, for example. They fit like a second skin at first, but over time, “the knees get saggy, the butt gets saggy, the waist gets wide, the pockets get wiggly”, says Strauss.
Know your measurements
As anyone who has tried on pants in a store knows, sizing is a crapshoot.
“Every brand cuts differently,” says Maccari. Generally, brands fall into one of three categories of fit, he says: true/actual sizing, slimmer cuts and oversized sizing. A size 32 in a brand with true sizing will fit more loosely than a 32 in a brand with slim sizing, for example.
One way to make your life easier – especially when it comes to online shopping, where you can’t try anything on – is to know your own measurements in inches and centimeters. The key measurements are: waist, inseam (the distance from your crotch to the bottom of your leg) and your preferred rise (the distance from your crotch to the waistband).
Take the inseam. Dawn says that ideally, the bottom of a pant leg should hit one’s instep. If it’s shorter, “it’s more cropped”, and if it’s longer, “you get wrinkles”. By knowing the length of one’s inseam, you’ll be able to tell where a pant will fall on your leg, and whether it will achieve the look you’re going for.
Know what you can change
If you find a pair of pants that you like, but they don’t fit quite right, don’t despair – a tailor can probably help.
Most of the time, Andrews says, sizing down is easier than sizing up. In other words, it’s safer to get pants that are slightly big and have them taken in rather than to get pants that are slightly small and hope they can be taken out.
Strauss recommends sizing “to your biggest part”, meaning that you should find pants that fit you comfortably at the biggest part of your body – for instance, your waist or thighs – and then have them taken in at the smaller areas.
If you are having pants hemmed, bring some of the shoes you plan to wear with them so you can see how they fall. If you’re not sure what you might wear them with, Dawn suggests bringing both a pair of sneakers and heels. “That way it has just the right hem for both,” she says.
Tailoring does entail additional cost and effort, but it’s a traditional part of acquiring new garments.
“Clothes were meant to be tailored,” says Strauss. That’s how human dress has worked for most of history, she notes. So-called standard sizing is a relatively new development – before that, clothes were usually custom made for individuals’ bodies. “Tailoring is something everybody should do,” she says.
I have yet to buy a new pair of pants. It still seems daunting. But I feel empowered by the knowledge that sizing is meaningless and that my inseam is 29in.
