The Best Linen Pants for Men Make Shorts Look Goofy

Striking the balance between dress and play requires a surgical eye, that, if done wrong, can turn out less like a majestic pegasus and more like a horrific lab experiment (we're still recovering from the dress-shoe-sneaker-sole era). Stóffa managed to perform a triple bypass with their eyes closed because these pleated trousers somehow strike that business-casual vibe perfectly and does both sides of the hyphen better than most. The preternaturally chill trousers look great with loafers, sure—but they'll also up the dressy factor considerably when you wear ‘em with strappy leather sandals. So if you’re ready to lock in at the office but go hard on your well-deserved vacation, you only need one pant.

Best Budget Linen Pants: Gap Linen-Cotton Pull-On Pants

Materials: 53% linen, 47% cotton | Fit: Relaxed | Sizes: XS-XXL | Colors: Black, Olive, Gray

Good-quality linen pants can run you a pretty penny. And when you'll spend the next four months living in them, it makes sense to invest in a decent pair. But Gap's pull-on pants remind us that there are always exceptions to the rule. The fabric is 53% linen and 47% cotton so you can get the benefits of both materials minus the excessive wrinkling. The silhouette is an easy, slightly relaxed fit and the adjustable waist is perfect for sizing up or down depending on the fit you're after (or how big of a meal you plan on having). They come in a slew of classic colors as well, which is great news because for just $60, you don't have to choose just one.

Best Dressy Linen Pants: Todd Snyder Italian Linen Sutton Pants

Materials: 100% linen | Fit: Tailored | Waist: 28-38 Length: 32-34 | Colors: Black, Olive, Gray

Todd Snyder's pedigree for tailored clothing is so good that you'd have to really put some effort into making his impeccable trousers look bad. These impossibly elegant trousers pay homage to a classic British military silhouette—and all the big fits to come. Pair these with your favorite button-up linen shirt to tap into your inner rakishly relaxed Italian guy or take things down a notch with a beat-up denim jacket and retro sneakers. But of course, these dressy slacks sync up well with its matching suit jacket but can take to a contrasting navy blazer just as well. So whether you're getting dressed for a regular ol' Tuesday or polishing up for a spring wedding, consider yourself sorted.

Best Jeans-Like Linen Pants: Alex Crane Cham Pants

Materials: 100% European linen | Fit: Mid-rise, straight-leg | Sizes: 28-36 Length: 32-34 | Colors: Varies

If you identify as a jeans guy but can't stand to wear your denim dungarees above 78 degrees, don't worry. Alex Crane's all about linen. Seriously, nearly every part of the brand's catalog has linen in it so of course they've basically mastered the medium. The brand's Cham pants feature jeans-style details like the hand pockets and metal top button but are made from a super soft, breezy 100% European linen. They've got a classic straight-leg silhouette that'll sync up seamlessly with a pair of Vans or some classy loafers and they come in a gang of colorways and patterns, each of which use all-natural dyes.

Best Linen Pants for Menswear Nerds: Evan Kinori Tw-Pleat Pants

Materials: 100% Belgian linen | Fit: High-waist, baggy tapered | Sizes: 28-36 Length: 32-34 | Colors: Varies

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.

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.

These days, you can find a pair of linen pants for as little as $20 or as much as $2,000. Be wary of sky-high prices, though: expensive doesn't always mean better, and affordable doesn't always mean bad. During our testing, there were $50 pants that surprised us and $500 pants that disappointed us—but for the most part, the best of the bunch landed squarely between those two extremes.

To kick off the process, we enlisted a who's who of GQ staffers to wear-test our contenders. Some of our colleagues have worked in retail; others have toiled for small-batch labels; all have a deep appreciation for linen’s heat-busting prowess. We leaned on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrowed down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price. (Like we said—different strokes for different folks.)

Our testers owned some of the pants on this list already, but because linen is so seasonal, a whole bunch were totally new to us. So after wear-testing the entire crop, we recorded our deeply scientific observations and rejiggered our selections accordingly. Based on those evaluations, we ran the numbers, collated the anecdotal evidence, and emerged with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best linen pants for men right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs. Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there's bound to be a pair here for you. (Read more about GQ's testing process here.)

1. Gerald Ortiz, GQ Style Commerce Writer
2. Reed Nelson, GQ Contributor
3. Avidan Grossman, GQ Senior Commerce Editor