Chinos. Basic as they come. Not inherently dressy nor especially casual, they serve as most men's "basic pants that are not jeans." Press a crease into a pair with slanted pockets, and you have something easy to dress up. Get a pair with a 20-inch-across leg opening, 19 pleats, or some other crazy feature, and you have a wacky streetwear pant. Get a vintage pair with a flat front, or wear your own into theground, and you have the core of ivy style. Get a basic pair and wear it in a sufficiently boring outfit, and people will derrogatorily call them "khakis," even though "khaki" refers to a color.

I like my chinos nice and big. I only have four good pairs, depending on your definition, but... Well, hang on, what are chinos?

The story I heard, originally, was that some Spanish soldiers got their hands on a Chinese fabric that they thought were great for making pants. They called them "Pantalones Chinos," and we just called them chinos. There's some ambiguity about how accurate that etymology is, but... who cares?

Most definitions I find will label chinos as "a cotton twill fabric," and end it there. As far as I can tell, any cotton twill is technically chino cloth. This is confusing. Denim is not chino cloth. Your jeans are not chinos. Your herringbone twill fatigues are not chinos. Chinos feel... well, there are a lot of different ways they can feel, but they don't feel like jeans, do they? Can we narrow the definition?

Well... not really. I'm just going to be listing any cotton twill pants that aren't fatigues or jeans or carpenter pants or whatever, and which I arbitrarily decide count as chinos. It helps if they're labeled chinos, or if I've felt them personally and can assure you they're chinos. Some of these options, I've only seen online, so they might feel different or age differently from your standard chinos.

• Budget options
• Higher-end options
• Unique designs
• Secondhand and other limited options

Oh, and if you don't want to read my bs, you're always welcome to skim the items on ShopMy

Budget Options

Uniqlo U ($50; occasionally on sale)

Uniqlo U, the collection designed by Christophe Lemaire, has a lot going for it, but to focus on the chinos: they're all 100% cotton, they all come in nice cuts, and they're all $50.

Uniqlo U appears to have multiple "wide fit chino pants." This batch has more color options, and this batch comes with tall sizing. I like the above batch myself, they have a more interesting shape, but the other two have a nice straight leg, that's pretty nice too.

• The wider pair
• Straight Leg, more color options
• Straight leg, tall sizes, more color options

Bronson ($40-56; occasionally on sale)

Again, Bronson has multiple options, these varying in size. They make my favorite fatigues, and a bunch of other good stuff. They do a lot of pretty good reproductions of military styles, and the prices are great. The biggest downside is that they're based in China, so they're hard to try on. Their sale cycle is essentially once or twice a year, 5-15% off depending on how much you spend. Not the biggest deal, up to you if you want to wait. Oh, and some stuff does sell out.

• 1930s IVY Style Double Pleated Chino Trousers
• 1960s AUS Army Combat Pants
• 1942 US Army Chino Trousers

J. Crew ($100; occasionally on sale)

I'm on record as a big lover of J. Crew's Giant Fit Chinos. They're not just wide, but high rise, with a great fabric. I think they're a cut above most J. Crew offerings, and I own a pair myself, which I love. Some other people prefer the Classic Chino Pant, which is not as wide, but also 100% cotton. They have slightly different details too, like a different pocket style, so go try them on, and see which one is right for you. And while you're there, try on the Wallace and Barnes pair, which I'll break down below.

• Giant Fit Chinos
• Classic Chino Pant

Higher-End Options

Buck Mason

Buck Mason does a few variations here. For one, they do these herringbone twill "baker's pants", which are halfway towards being fatigues... but because they don't have a visible pocket outline, I'm going to call them chinos. I also just love my pair and love recommending them.

Buck Mason also makes one of the only suits on this list (I didn't look too hard, since this article is mostly about pants. Still, chino suits are cool. They also make a lighter, more casual, less constructed jacket for $200, also out of cotton twill. I prefer the heavier one, personally.

• Herringbone Twill Baker's Pants
• Italian Twill Graduate Suit Jacket
• Italian Twill Graduate Pants
• Tropic Twill Carry-On Jacket

Casatlantic

At $180 US, I honestly think these are a bit of a steal. They developed their own fabric based on a vintage fabric they loved, and their cut combines vintage options, reminding me of the legendary Ralph Lauren Andrew cut.

• Tanger
• Mogador (less wide)
• They have four cuts but I'm not in here recommending slim pants.

Haven

Haven's a cool Canadian retailer with its own inhouse line focused on more technical fabrics. They use Gore-Tex and Loro Piana Storm System and all sorts of fancy fabrics, but the relevant one today is Apex Twill.

Apex Twill is a densely woven cotton that gains some natural water resistance. It's also Japanese. I need to get some kind of effect on this blog that makes cherry blossoms rain down from the heavens whenever I say Japanese.

I also think the cut is pretty nice. Those double pleats are cool.

• Shop Pant - Apex Twill Tobacco

O'Connells

O'Connells is an old standard of Ivy style. They've been making clothes more or less the same way since the 50s, which, in their case, is a good thing.

• Pleated Cotton Twill Trousers - Oyster

OrSlow

OrSlow is one of those Japanese brands that make people think Japanese brands are cool. Particularly, they're good at repurposing old military styles into modern clothing, while maintaining the charm of the former.

• Vintage Fit Army Trousers - Dark Khaki

Todd Snyder

I've tried these on, and they're nice, but shopping at Todd Snyder comes with a few other perks worth noting: they have stores all over, a wide variety of styles to try on, straightforward returns and exchanges, and a standing discount if you use code DANIELH15.

• Relaxed Fit Japanese Selvedge Chino

Nudie

Nudie is known more for denim than chinos, but there really is a lot of overlap between the fabrics. These are their "Tuff Tony" cut with a high rise, and also feature some nice touches like corozo buttons.

• Black "Tuff Tony" Trousers. $164 USD on sale. Not bad, huh?

Wallace and Barnes

A higher-end workwear-themed line from J. Crew, Wallace & Barnes is one of those that people seem to love across the board. They might also go on sale sometimes. J. Crew Scale is a funky thing.

• Wallace & Barnes selvedge officer chino pant

Noah

I like the single pleat pants here. At some point, I noticed a lot of streetwear brands were doing single pleated chinos with a full cut and single forward pleat. Now, is Noah a streetwear brand? I don't know, and I don't really care, check out the pants.

• Single-Pleat Baggy Pant
• Classic Double-Pleat Herringbone Pant

Jack Donnelly

Jack Donelly makes a variety of chino styles in the USA. Their M1 cut is their most relaxed, and therefore my favorite. The rises on their pants are generally lower than I like,

• Twill Chino - M1 Relaxed
• Small Batch - Selvedge Chino Japanese Twill Button Fly (Kuroki Mills fabric!)

RRL

I have a pair of these I like. I thrifted mine, but still. The one I was going to share sold out before I could finish writing this article. Anyway, RRL makes good chinos.

• Chino Field Pant in a mid-brown, but they're sold out.
• Chino Field Pant in a sort of teal color, they call it "gas station green," that's... uh... well, check back next season, I'm sure they'll have more stock.

Murray's Toggery

This is the only place a proper old money family would get their nantucket reds. And at $125, they're not even that expensive.

• Nantucket Reds, Traditional Fit

3sixteen

Known more for denim, 3Sixteen also makes chinos. They make these in a pretty wide variety of colors, buuuut their website doesn't group them up as one item, so... Good luck.

• Work Pant - Black Twill
• Work Pant - Crocodile Twill

Auralee

I feel like Auralee should be in the next section, but it's not, it's here. Honestly, these are pretty clasically styled chinos. Still, they're reallly cool standard chinos.

• Washed Finx Chino One-Tuck Pants Camel Brown

Agolde

I don't really know much about this brand—I discovered this cut while making this list—but these do look cool to me. They are described as "tapered," which is technically true but... uh, I mean, look at them.

• Gaius Tapered Pleated Regenerative Cotton-Twill Chinos
• Gaius Chino

Ghaia Cashmere

Yes, they make things other than cashmere. Like these chinos. No personal experience, but everybody I know who's visited their store says great things about the brand and the man running in it (including, once, that his ALD lookbook was very Dan Hakimi coded).

• Marinaio Straight-Leg Pleated Cotton-Twill Chinos

Unique Designs

I highlighted some options that already live rent free in my mind, and some other options that appeared to me while I built the article out.

Studio Nicholson

God, I want Studio Nicholson pants. They come in such cool shapes. My closet is full, but I'll make an exception for a pair of these, one of these days...

• Sorte
• Guild
• Bill

sacai

Ohhh this first pair is crazy. Super-sized flare, built-in belt. The belted pair is also cool. Look into sacai, it's a cool brand. And look into Chitose Abe. She's Japanese.

• Beige Cotton Chino Trousers
• Belted Cotton Twill Pants

Lemaire

Lemaire's big contribution here is the "twisted" side-seam, which creates a unique shape where the leg kind of turns forward. This is partly inspired by the way old jeans age. I like it.

• Twisted Workwear Pants Espresso
• Green Twisted Chino Trouser
• Black Twisted Trousers

Martine Rose

These have a subtle flare the whole way through and buttons down the sides of each leg. Martine Rose is another cool designer worth looking into, if you're curious.

• Beige Sports Chino Trousers

Kapital

Okay, for some reason, Kapital makes a combination pair of chinos with a built in chino skirt. I'm not sure who the target audience is, I wouldn't wear it, but you might.

• Chino Tapered SKIR-OUSERs

Secondhand

I've written about thrifitng chinos in the past, but here, I'm going to give super specific recs behind the Jerry and Elaine membership tiers. Because I can.