A case for the sweatpant
I am aware that this is a site about suits, and that the house rule is get up, dress up, show up. The sweatpant is not a contradiction of that. It is what a man who takes his clothes seriously wears when no one is watching, and it turns out that the people who make the finest suits in the world also make the finest sweatpants, for exactly the same reason. They cannot help themselves.
What separates a luxurious sweatpant from a gym sweatpant is the same thing that separates a bespoke jacket from a rack one. Fabric first, then cut, then finish. The fabric is either cashmere, which is a different garment entirely, or a heavyweight loopback cotton with enough body to hold a line. The cut is slim through the thigh and tapered, so it reads as a trouser rather than a bag. And the finish is in the details you never see in a department store: a covered elastic, a drawcord in silk or leather, a real fly, pockets that lie flat.
A good sweatpant is a trouser that happens to be soft. A bad one is a bag that happens to be on.
The ten below run from a pair that costs as much as a suit to two cotton pairs that cost less than a dinner. All of them are things I would wear to answer the door. Prices are the makers’ own at the time of writing, and every link goes to their door.
The ten
1. Loro Piana
Cashmere, made in Italy · loropiana.com
The best fabric house in the world makes the best sweatpant in the world, and it is not close. Loro Piana’s cashmere jogging trousers are knitted from the same fibre that goes into their coats, in the same Piedmont mills, and they weigh almost nothing while being warmer than any cotton. The cut is narrow and long, the drawcord is leather, and the colours are the Loro Piana colours: a grey so quiet it disappears, a navy that is almost black, a camel that matches the coat.
They cost what a good suit costs. They will also outlast three of them, and nothing else on this list feels like them against the skin. If you are buying one pair for the rest of your life, this is the pair.
2. Brunello Cucinelli
Cashmere and cotton, made in Solomeo · brunellocucinelli.com
Cucinelli invented the idea that a man could wear sweatpants with a sport coat and look as though he had meant to, and his are still the ones that make the trick work. The cashmere versions are thicker and more relaxed than Loro Piana’s, with a broken-in feel from the first wearing, and the cotton and cashmere blends are the most useful thing he makes: soft enough for the sofa, structured enough for a jacket.
The Solomeo details are all there. Tonal drawcords, a slight break at the ankle, and the two-tone grey that has become his signature. These are the sweatpants for the man who is going to be seen in them.
3. Tom Ford
Cashmere and cotton, made in Italy · tomford.com
Tom Ford approaches a sweatpant the way he approaches a dinner jacket, which is to say he cuts it to make you look better than you have any right to. The line is longer and leaner than anyone else’s, the rise is higher, and the taper is unforgiving in the best way. The cashmere pairs are the most elegant on this list, and the cotton jersey pairs are close behind.
The tell is the finishing. Covered waistbands, silk-lined pockets on the cashmere, a drawcord with metal aglets that would not look out of place on a coat. Black is the colour, and Tom Ford black is its own shade.
4. Ralph Lauren Purple Label
Cashmere and cotton, made in Italy · ralphlauren.com
Ralph has always understood the country house better than anyone, and Purple Label sweatpants are what you wear in one. The cashmere fleece pairs are the closest thing to a great vintage American sweatpant made in a fabric that costs more than a car payment, with a generous cut, a wide ribbed cuff and a flat drawcord. The cotton pairs are heavyweight loopback in the same silhouette and the same colours: heather grey, navy, forest.
They are made in Italy and they feel like something your grandfather might have worn, if your grandfather had been very rich and very well dressed. That is the whole Ralph Lauren proposition, and here it works perfectly.
5. The Elder Statesman, Los Angeles
Hand-dyed cashmere, made in Los Angeles · elder-statesman.com
Greg Chait started The Elder Statesman in 2007 with the idea of cashmere as something you lived in rather than saved for, and his sweatpants are the reason cashmere sweats became a category at all. They are knitted and hand-dyed in Los Angeles, in colours that range from a perfect heather to tie-dyes that only work because the fibre is so good, and they are heavy, slouchy and extravagantly comfortable.
These are not sweatpants to wear with a blazer. They are sweatpants to wear on a plane, in a house in the desert, or on a Sunday that has no plans. The plain heather grey is the one to start with.
6. Kiton
Cashmere and silk, made in Naples · kiton.com
The greatest tailoring house in Naples makes sweatpants, and of course they are absurd, and of course they are wonderful. Kiton’s are knitted from cashmere or cashmere and silk, cut with a tailor’s eye, and finished with the same hand details as the suits: hand-stitched seams, a real fly with a button, pockets cut on the bias so they sit flat.
They are the most expensive thing on this list and the most beautifully made. Wear them with a Kiton cashmere jacket and loafers and you will understand why the Neapolitans call it sprezzatura, and why the rest of us just call it money.
7. Zegna
Cashmere and cotton, made in Italy · zegna.com
Zegna has spent the last few years redefining itself around the idea of the luxury leisure wardrobe, and the sweatpant is at the centre of it. The house’s cashmere and cotton jogging trousers are the most technically refined on this list, with fabrics from Zegna’s own mills in Trivero, a cut that sits somewhere between a trouser and a track pant, and colours drawn from the Oasi Zegna landscape: moss, stone, a brown they call Vicuña.
The cotton Oasi pairs are the everyday choice. The cashmere pairs are the ones to buy if you want the Loro Piana experience with a slightly sportier line.
8. Sunspel, England
Loopback cotton, made in England and Portugal · sunspel.com
The first cotton pair on the list, and the best. Sunspel has been making underwear and T-shirts in Long Eaton since 1860, and their loopback cotton is the same fabric they use for the sweatshirts: a long-staple cotton knitted with loops on the inside that trap warmth without weight. The cut is slim and straight, the elastic is covered, and there is nothing on them that does not need to be there.
These are the sweatpants of a man who owns a Sunspel T-shirt and a Sunspel sweater and has understood the point. Grey melange, naturally.
9. Reigning Champ, Vancouver
Midweight terry, made in Canada · reigningchamp.com
The best sweatpant made in North America, from a Vancouver house that does almost nothing else. Reigning Champ knits its own terry in Canada, cuts it with a slim, athletic taper, and finishes it with flatlock seams and a heavy ribbed cuff that never sags. It is the sweatpant that serious menswear people wear to the gym and then, increasingly, everywhere else.
Buy the midweight terry in heather grey. It is the platonic sweatpant, it costs less than a dinner for two, and it will look the same in five years.
10. John Elliott, Los Angeles
French terry, made in the United States · johnelliott.co
John Elliott built a house on one product, the Escobar sweatpant, and it deserved it. Cut from a heavy French terry with a long, narrow leg and a zip at the ankle, it was the pair that made men who never wore sweatpants start wearing sweatpants, and it remains the most flattering cotton pair on the list.
Black, with a black T-shirt and white sneakers, is the uniform. It is the one pair here that looks as good on a man of twenty-five as on a man of sixty, and I say that as the second of those.
How to wear them, and where to stop
The taper is not negotiable. A sweatpant that flares at the ankle looks like something you were issued. A sweatpant that narrows looks like something you chose. Every pair above narrows.
Grey first, then navy, then black. Grey is the colour the garment was born in and the one that goes with everything. Navy is the dressiest. Black is the most useful on a plane.
Cashmere is for the house and the aircraft. It does not go to the gym and it does not go in a machine. Cotton is for everything else.
The jacket rule. Cucinelli made it possible to wear sweatpants with a sport coat. That does not mean you should, unless the sweatpants are Cucinelli’s, the coat is soft, and you are somewhere the light is kind. Everywhere else, a fine sweater and a good pair of loafers is as far as it should go.
And never to dinner. Not to a restaurant, not to someone’s table, not anywhere a man has taken the trouble to cook. Get up, dress up, show up. The sweatpant is for after.
Comfort is not the opposite of style. Carelessness is.
Whatever Suits You · Style. Sound. Substance.
Read next: Brunello Cucinelli and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism →