It’s shorts season, sure, but finding the best summer pants for men may be equally as critical to locking in your warm-weather wardrobe—for all sorts of reasons. You can’t show up to work in cargos, for one. And your social calendar will inevitably fill up with cocktail hours, compulsory barbecues at your boss’s suburban palace, beach weddings, and all sorts of other moments when a naked calf would be out of place. And hey, maybe you’re one of those guys who just refuses to wear shorts. (We know you, we see you, we understand.)
Whatever the scenario, you do not need to power through 90 percent humidity in a pair of Levi’s 501s or your winter-weight chinos. We are in a Golden Age of summer pants, the product of a broader decade-long pants-renaissance in menswear. There are roomy linen trousers for anyone afflicted with return-to-office-itis, a brave new world of drawstring options, pants literally designed for beach days, and enough designer summerweight trousers to inspire fit pics without you even having to ask a friend.
Put a few pairs of our favorite summer pants in your closet, and you’ll be covered (literally) for anything that comes your way. Don’t blame us if all your shorts start collecting some dust.
The Best Summer Pants, According to GQ
Best Linen Summer Pants
Linen trousers—like their linen suit and linen shirt cousins—are dressed-up and comfortable all at once; a dash of Arnold Palmer or Alain Deleon. They should be the first thing you reach for when the temps are high but the dress code’s got no chill. We like them with a bit of extra room in the leg, both for the look and the extra airiness.
J.Crew
Classic Fit Linen Trouser
You probably already have a pair of J.Crew classic chinos in your closet, so why not get the linen version and save yourself the hassle of having to overthink things?
Alex Mill
Standard Pleated Pant in Linen
The pants that put Alex Mill on the map—featuing a couple trim pleats and that handsome lil coin pocket up by the waistband—that have been summer-fied with linen.
Rag & Bone
Baggy Linen Trousers
Rag & Bone built in plenty of room, plus it gets bonus points for the faint gray—an uncommon but worthy summer color. Though a word of advice: wear light gray (not white) underwear if you want it to stay hidden.
Obey
FUBAR Pleated Linen Pants
These unexpected winners from skate brand Obey deliver the polish of a good pleat, but for someone who can land a nollie.
Abercrombie & Fitch
Tailored Linen Blend Trouser
Nothing will get you through more hot nights out—at a restaurant, on a date, for work, for play—than a pair of perfectly proportioned black linen pants.
NN07
Kay 1808 Linen Trousers
The extended pleat? That creamy color? Those swishing swaying wide legs? Perfection. All these pants need are some loafers and an Aperol spritz that you wave around haphazardly while making a point.
Best Summer Chinos
All the best chinos can reliably work as a summer chino—hell, the crisp cotton fabric was invented to survive the humidity in South Asia. But when your weather app just shows the emoji with the sweat drip and tongue sticking out, having some extra-breathable chinos in the closet doesn’t hurt.
J.Crew
Creased Summer Trouser in Cotton-Linen Blend
A little bit of linen and a light crease down the leg goes a long way toward handling heat and looking the business, respectively.
La Paz
Carona Double Pleated Canvas Pants
Breathable cotton canvas, plenty of pleats, a slightly cropped hem means these chinos have more airflow than a Formula 1 wind tunnel.
Casatlantic
El Jadida
Leave it to a brand inspired by the founder’s Moroccan-born grandfather to nail a chino that looks like it’s as ready for the desert as it is ordering dessert and an after-dinner espresso.
Todd Snyder
Relaxed Fit Japanese Selvedge Chino
When your lower half is gasping for air, a relaxed fit chino from the label that lets men look good, comfortably, is an easy choice. Also available in a classic straight fit, too, if that’s more your vibe.
Best Drawstring Summer Pants
There’s been a massive movement in men’s pants to replace the belt with a drawstring. They bring all the ease of your favorite sweats but half the heat and twice the put-togetherness. Pack nothing but drawstring summer pants for a vacation; give all your belts the weekends off between now and Labor Day. In a slew of lightweight materials (including a stellar seersucker from Todd Snyder), nobody will accuse you of being underdressed.
Vince
Hemp Drawstring Pants
Where hemp tend to have a real Dead & Co. aesthetic, Vince keeps things clean while leaning into one of Mother’s Nature’s easiest, breeziest fabrics.
Stoffa
Pleated Wool-Seersucker Drawstring Trousers
The NYC-based gods of gracefully elegant tailoring bring their dark arts into the light with a pair of summer pants worth going into debt for. The details—a subtle seersucker texture, the box pleats sitting a little lower, the not-shy drawstring—all add up to perfection.
Onia
Straight Leg Linen Drawstring Trousers
Sometimes, simplicity is the answer. These linen pants from Onia have everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Todd Snyder
Seersucker Pant
Treat ’em like sweatpants for morning dog walks; pull on a button-down shirt and a pair of dainty dress shoes or loafers and they’ll never know you’re living loose and lounge-y.
Best Designer Summer Pants
The hottest pants of the summer don’t need to be pants that make you hot. The best in the business, like Bode and Willy Chavarria, are out here making sure that if you can’t layer your way to a big fit, you can lean into pants that bring plenty of presence.
Our Legacy
Sailor Trouser
What look like quietly simple trousers come alive when you see the texture woven into the linen-and-silk fabric and the work it took to make something so loose and light have pleats, creases, and actual shape.
Bode
Tearaway Trousers
We’ve waited years for someone to revive the tearaway pants of our rec basketball youth. No one could have done it better than Emily Bode.
Willy Chavarria
Chino Trousers
Nobody’s defining next-wave menswear like Willie Chavaria, smashing up references with off-the-charts construction. These pants are what happens when JNCO jeans and business casual come together with exquisite results.
Loewe
Cropped Trousers
Jonathan Anderson may be off to more Frenchified pastures, but the erstwhile Loewe designer left us a parting gift in a pair of voluminuous pants quietly wearing the Spanish label’s logo on the back pocket.
Best Beach Pants
Beach pants aren’t limited to the beach, though that’s where they do their best work: walking the dog with a coffee at 8am, hitting the boardwalk after a long day lounging on a blanket, sitting around a bonfire at night with some pals. (They’ll also work just as well by the hotel pool or at the bar a couple blocks from your Airbnb.) Give ’em a lazy cuff and don’t worry too much about a couple salt-water stains.
Madewell
Linen Pull-On Pant
These flat-front, elastic-waisted pants were engineered in a lab to be the only pants you need to pack for vacation.
Abercrombie & Fitch
Loose Linen-Blend Pull-On Pant
You’ve got nine colors to choose from and “loose” is right there in the name. What’s not to love?
Banana Republic
Relaxed Beach Pant
Just the right amount of baggy and some extra-long drawstrings will have you feeling properly leisurely as you pull up to your reserved lounge chair at the hotel’s private beach.
Kartik Research
Kantha Trousers
Kartik Research turned these cotton standouts into something special with hand-done block printing, so no two are alike.
