Meet the feel-good treat your gams deserve.
Courtesy of Mr Porter; Design: Emily Hanhan
Just as the mighty Mitochondria produces energy for your cells, the best men's corduroy pants produce all the heat your fall outfits need. Constructed of evenly spaced rows of thick cotton “wales,” corduroy will always be warmer than conventional denim, though it could—and should—be worn with the same reckless abandon as your favorite just-thrown-on jeans.
Frankly, they’re also just a joy to wear. The real magic of wearing corduroy is something you can only feel once you’re swaddled in it. Like corduroy shirts, corduroy pants have real heft to them, bathing your legs in all the warmth and cuddly energy of a weighted blanket without, well, the excess weight.
That said, not all corduroy pants are created equal—right now, for example, it’s all too easy to end up with an overly tapered option that hugs the legs too closely. Luckily, there's also no shortage of options in handsome cuts and colors, all of which are more than worth adding to your fall rotation this season, and every autumn after it. These are 13 of the best men's corduroy pants you can buy right now.
In This Guide
Best Corduroy Pants Overall: Polo Ralph Lauren Whitman Relaxed Fit Corduroy Pant
Polo Ralph Lauren
Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
As the long arc of menswear zigs and zags, one thing never changes: Ralph Lauren doesn't scrimp on the essential details, and menswear nerds keep coming back for them. In this case, Ralph's designers have sourced sumptuous corduroy and let it spread out a little, with two pleats and an added coin pocket. Both rear pockets have buttons for added security, and while it's hard to see in the image above, all colorways come with a lovely cuff at the hem. All of this for just $200 (or $198 at Ralph), and the knowledge that if you fall in love with this cut, known as the Whitman, it also comes in a chino fabric for summer.
Best Corduroy Pants to Replace Your Jeans: Levi’s 555 Relaxed Straight Corduroy Jeans
Levi's
555™ Relaxed Straight Corduroy Men's Jeans
Levi’s: synonymous with denim, but also pretty good at everything else. For proof, peep this pair of corduroy pants, cut from the same block as the brand's classic, beloved 555—essentially the neatness of the iconic straight-fit 501, but with some much appreciated extra room throughout. They're 100% cotton, so the knees won't ever sag out, and our favorite detail has to be that colorway, a gray-brown that will sit perfectly against a navy or black knit. (Levi's calls it ‘Smokey Taupe.’)
Best Corduroy Pants for the Office: Todd Snyder Relaxed Wide Wale Corduroy Pant
Todd Snyder
Straight Fit 5-Pocket Corduroy Pant
If there’s any potential knock against corduroy, it’s that the fabric can read a bit casual. And sure, in some highly formal settings, the average pair of corduroy pants might make you feel like a schoolboy in a room of Miss Trunchbulls. Not these Todd Snyder pants though, mainly thanks to their incredibly elegant sheen, black color, and relaxed fit that helps them wear almost more like suit trousers. (It also means they're one of the more comfortable pairs on this list, as well as being the most formal.) One more note for the nerds: The 8-wale corduroy used here is a touch wider, making them even more satisfying to run your hands over during stressful Q3 budget meetings.
Best Corduroy Pants for Fashion Guys: Agolde Fusion Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
AGOLDE
Fusion Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
In recent years, the Agolde brand has started to really gain the attention of fashion guys, simply because its jeans are just that good. Naturally, that extends to its corduroys: A plum-gray hue, 100% cotton fabrication, lovely drape along the inseam, and all made in the USA. Simply put, these get Agolde medal from us (Sorry.)
Best Corduroy Pants for Menswear Nerds: Mfpen Generation Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
Mfpen
Generation Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
Fear not! While many mfpen trousers err on the actually-quite-wide side of ‘Straight Leg,’ these represent a new, closer fit for the brand. But that isn't the point here: The jumbo cord is. For indeed, a closer look will reveal that these aren't just any old corduroys, but some of the widest wales our jean-faring eyes have ever had the good fortune to see. Jumbo cords, for a jumbo grail.
More Corduroy Pants We Love
Polo Ralph Lauren
Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
Those Ralph pleated numbers up top were too louche for you? It's only fair we offer you the classic, flat-front, true straight pair—which leans even more A-list, actually.
Buck Mason
Craftsman Corduroy Ford Standard Jean
Buck Mason's full line is so good, we recently named it America's next great everyman brand. Its flat-front corduroy pants are cut straight as an arrow and sit right at your waist.
J.Crew
Relaxed-Fit Double-Pleated Corduroy Pant
If you’re going to call a fit “classic,” it had better be dialed exactly right. Luckily for J.Crew, these machine-washable cords fit right in the sweet spot between barrel and cigarette-legged—and are sold in a 10-Wale fabric that’s just begging for you to run your hands across it.
Evan Kinori
Sumi Ink Flat Front Pant
Potentially menswear’s favorite cult designer, the San Francisco-based Evan Kinori has been crafting roomy trousers and oversized shirts for a decade now. The price is high, but people hold on to their Kinori pieces like heirlooms. And Kinori's cord pants have always been a core part of the offering.
Ssstein
Vintage Corduroy Round Pants
Japan's Ssstein—which produces all of its fabrics and colors in-house—continues to make tastemakers salivate. The color of these cords is one clue as to why.
RRL
Empire Straight-Leg Cotton-Corduroy Trousers
Sumptuous corduroy from a French mill that's specialized in producing it since the 19th century? RRL, you spoil us.
Knickerbocker
Canal Pleated Corduroy Cotton Pant
Honestly, these could also have been our pick for the most office-appropriate pair. (They're pleated, after all.) But the Knickerbocker cut takes them into a different, cooler realm. If anything, they're office pants that really, deep down, just want to be out on a date.
Uniqlo
Corduroy Easy Ankle Pants
Hail, the rare budget pick with a luxurious fabric and plenty of great colors to choose from! And if you couldn't tell from the name alone, plenty of thought has gone into making these incredibly easy to wear. There's an elastic waistband, for one, as well as some stretch built in to the fabric for even more comfort.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean 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 narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category 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 superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ's testing process here.)
Why Buy Corduroy Pants This Fall 2026?
Unlike most jeans, corduroy pants totally pass muster in more formal environments, too. Think of them as winterized—or just simply better—chinos: Their unmistakably soft, nubby fabric offers texture and depth, where standard khakis feel more pedestrian (dare we say… forgettable).
Louis Cheslaw is an editor working with the GQ Recommends team. He also writes the Wardrobe newsletter, and previously spent years helping people make good shopping decisions at New York Magazine’s The Strategist. When he isn’t writing about what guys are wearing right now, he’s likely covering cultural movers and ... Read More
Daniel Varghese is an editor based in Brooklyn. In addition to covering menswear, design, and lifestyle gear for GQ, he writes Leg Day, a Substack newsletter about pursuing joy as a city cyclist. Shoot him a note at varghesedanielr@gmail.com if you'd like to chat about how to dismantle the hypebeast-to-cycling-bro ... Read More